Russia Passes Law Banning "Child-Free Propaganda" Amid Demographic Decline

Russian MPs on Tuesday passed in the final third reading controversial legislation banning "propaganda" of remaining childless, the latest measure targeting what Moscow depicts as Western liberal ideas.

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.

MPs in the Duma lower house of parliament voted unanimously in favour of the draft bill, which would apply to materials online, in media, advertising and in films that promote "rejection of childbearing".

The bill targets "destructive content" that promotes a "conscious" rejection of having children.

Violations would be punishable by fines up to 400,000 rubles ($4,000) on individuals to five million rubles for businesses. The bill also includes a provision to deport foreigners.

"This is a fateful law... Without children, there will be no country. This ideology will lead to people stopping giving birth to children," the Duma's speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told MPs ahead of the vote.

He also said the legislation was about "protecting citizens, primarily the generation growing up, from information spread in the media space that negatively affects the development of personality".

This is "so new generations of our citizens grow up orientated towards traditional family values", he said.

The legislation will now be considered by the upper house of parliament on November 20, before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.

It would amend existing legislation that already bans any information seen as encouraging LGBTQ relationships or changing gender.

The Duma also passed legislation in the third reading banning foreigners in countries that allow gender reassignment from adopting Russian children.

It is the latest attack and stigmatisation of LGBTQ people by Moscow.

Moscow has long portrayed itself as a bulwark against liberal values, but that trend has hugely accelerated since the Kremlin launched its Ukraine offensive, further rupturing ties with the West.

The bill would ban adoption by citizens of countries that authorise "the change of sex by medical intervention, including with the use of medicine", or allow individuals to change their gender on official identity documents.

Since 1993, foreigners have adopted 102,403 children from Russia, Volodin said, warning that "Western policy towards children is destructive."

Russia has created an inhospitable environment for LBGTQ people for years. In July 2023, it banned the "international LGBT movement" as extremist and made gender reassignment illegal.

Putin himself has repeatedly mocked people who have undergone gender reassignment as well as LGBTQ people.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)