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 childfree 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 5 million rubles ($54,000) for businesses, Volodin said.

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

One of the bill's initiators, lawmaker Elvira Aitkulova, said the initiative had the support of the government.

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

The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, told the Izvestia newspaper this month: "As for the childfree movement, I think that it should even be legally banned, so that it does not exist".

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.

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

Foreign citizens who violate its provisions would face detention or deportation, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

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.