Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'

Russian MPs on Tuesday called for a ban on promoting childless lifestyles, the latest measures targeting what Moscow depicts as a liberal ideology at odds with Russia's conservative values.

Facing an ageing population and low birth rates, Moscow is seeking to reverse a demographic slump -- accentuated by its military offensive on Ukraine -- that threatens its economic future.

The Kremlin, the powerful Russian Orthodox Church and high-profile conservative public figures regularly promote what they call "traditional values", both as a bulwark against Western liberal ideas and as a way to arrest Russia's demographic decline.

"We have started considering a bill banning propaganda of a conscious refusal to have children," parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on social media.

The measures would amount to a "ban on the ideology of childlessness and the child free movement", he said.

The proposed legislation would apply to material online, in media, advertising and in films.

Violations would be punishable by fines ranging from 400,000 rubles ($4,300) on individuals to five million rubles for businesses, Volodin said.

A "large and friendly family is the basis of a strong state," he added.

The Kremlin last week appeared to offer its backing to the bill.

"Everything that needs to be done to increase the birth rate must be done. And everything that hinders this should disappear from our lives," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday when asked about the planned bill.

Russia recorded its lowest birth rate in 25 years in the first half of 2024.

Hundreds of thousands of young men have either been called up to the army to fight in Ukraine or fled abroad to avoid being conscripted.

- 'More important things' -

Positive depictions of couples who have chosen not to have children are already rare in Russian popular culture.

"I can't say that I've seen a huge amount of this 'propaganda' or that I've come across it anywhere online," Victoria, a 47-year-old psychotherapist told AFP in Moscow.

"To be honest I don't think this question is very relevant right now in our country. I think there are some more important things that could be discussed," she added.

But Abdullah Shamkhalov, a 49-year-old businessmen backed the measures.

"I am in favour of banning such things. Let people get married, have children. This is the most important thing in life," he told AFP in Moscow, calling those who promote living without children as "godless" and part of a "sect".

The proposals resemble legislation passed more than a decade ago that banned "propaganda" of LGBTQ relationships to minors, a law that was extended to adults in 2022.

That ban effectively outlawed any representation of what Moscow called "non-traditional sexual relations" in public and in the media as part of a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on Russia's LGBTQ community.

The latest bill also echoes a Soviet-era tax on men and women without children.

In a bid to boost births, President Vladimir Putin has already revived a Soviet tradition of awarding medals to parents of large families, who also benefit from various tax and welfare benefits.