Bill banning childfree propaganda passes 1st reading in Russian State Duma

MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma on Thursday passed at first reading a bill banning the childfree ideology.

The bill prohibits information promoting childlessness on the Internet, in films, and in advertisements. In particular, the bill, if adopted, will amend Articles 10.6 and 15.1 of the law On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection and some legislative acts of the Russian Federation.

The bill was authored by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, Russian Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko, and a large group of deputies and senators.

Volodin earlier said the provisions of the bill do not extend to a woman's decision not to have children.

"This is about propaganda of the ideology of refusing to have a child, the law does not apply to a woman's decision not to have a child," Volodin told reporters.

"The aim of the bill is to prevent any destructive content which may affect an individual's decision about having children," he said. "Without banning this, we won't solve our demographic problem," he said. "The propaganda of childlessness is a socially dangerous phenomenon," Volodin said.

Elvira Aitkulova, one of the initiators of the bill, said the bill bans propaganda of childlessness, not personal opinions. "The ideology of childlessness now literally permeates the information space. The first thing we need to do is to work with that destructive content that goes from childfree to child hate, establishes very tough definitions of those who now have children, cause hatred against them, and our task is to stop that," Aitkulova told reporters on Thursday.

She also said the rumors about the connection between the bill and the introduction of a childlessness tax are groundless. "Our package of bills is not connected to the childlessness tax in any way. Moreover, this issue has not been discussed in the State Duma yet," Aitkulova said.

The State Duma also passed in the first reading a related initiative introducing administrative liability for breaching the ban on childfree propaganda.

The bill amends Article 6.21 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses. It introduces a fine for citizens in an amount of 50,000 rubles to 100,000 rubles, from 100,000 rubles to 200,000 rubles for officials, and from 800,000 rubles to one million rubles for legal entities.

Similar violations committed with the use of the mass media or the Internet will be punishable by a fine in an amount of 100,000 rubles to 200,000 rubles for citizens, 200,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles for officials and one million rubles to four million rubles for legal entities.

If these violations were committed among minors, they will be punishable by a fine in an amount of 100,000 rubles to 200,000 rubles for citizens, 200,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles for officials, and one million rubles to two million rubles for legal entities.

The liability for propaganda among minors using the mass media or the Internet will increase and lead to a fine in an amount of 200,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles for citizens, 400,000 rubles to 800,000 rubles for officials, and two million rubles to five million rubles for legal entities.

The fines for foreigners will be the same as for Russian citizens, but with administrative expulsion from Russia or administrative arrest for a period of up to 15 days also with expulsion.