Could Domestic Violence Soon Be Legal In Russia?

Leaving a violent relationship can be a difficult, dangerous decision for any woman but, for Russian women, the stakes are even higher. In Russia, there is no official help for women seeking to escape violence, and refuges are virtually non-existent. This is a country where 40 percent of all serious violent crime takes place in the home and mainstream cultural attitudes still dictate that abuse is, at best, an embarrassing ‘private matter’ best swept under the rug.

Last week, Russian women’s rights were dealt a further blow when the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, passed its first reading of a bill that redefines the first incident of domestic assault as an administrative rather than criminal offence. This means that victims would no longer be able to press charges and perpetrators would be liable to pay a fine instead of facing jail. The initiative immediately prompted outrage from women’s rights groups.

An oft-quoted study puts the number of Russian women dying as the result of domestic violence at 10,000 per year. And some studies suggest 600,000 women face physical and verbal abuse – but lack of official data makes it hard to verify.

Svetlana, a Muscovite in her thirties who doesn’t want to give her full name, managed to finally leave her violent husband last year. It wasn’t easy. ‘I was squirrelling money away, waiting for the moment I could leave,’ she says. They were married happily

in the beginning but her husband’s work problems led him to start drinking heavily and abusing drugs, which prompted violent outbursts. ‘He would hit me and claim no memory of it the next day,’ Svetlana says. ‘Asking him to get help enraged him further. By the time I left, I no longer recognised the man I’d married.’

Russia is one of the few countries still to adopt specific domestic violence laws. Its closest effort arrived last summer, when the country’s battery laws were amended so that beating

a relative – be it a child, a spouse or a parent – became punishable by up to two years in jail.

‘By the time the police get involved, it’s usually too late anyway,’ says Svetlana, who spent time reaching out to other victims on social media as she prepared to leave her husband. ‘Most women don’t lodge formal complaints – either they don’t trust the police, or they have nowhere to go anyway.’

This new bill was proposed by prominent ultra-conservative senator Yelena Mizulina, who argues parents need to be able to discipline their children without fear of consequences at the hands of the state. In total, 368 out of 450 Duma members voted for the bill.

But, of course, the bill reform affects violence towards spouses,

too. In response, prominent Russian businesswoman and social activist Alyona Popova started a Change.org petition to try and make the Duma think again. Popova links support for decriminalisation with public panic over the state’s interference in family matters. The Russian press regularly runs high-profile stories of children being removed from their families after an allegation of assault, without proper investigation on the part of the authorities. For example, in a recent case, a woman had 10 children – including adopted and foster children – removed from her home after a nursery teacher allegedly spotted a bruise on one of the youngest kids. It was covered extensively by

the Russian media.

There is indeed an issue with heavy-handed tactics wherein removal of children is concerned,’ Popova says. ‘But decriminalisation of domestic assault will solve nothing. Instead

of targeting what is a very specific problem, lawmakers are merely creating a new problem.’

Popova tells me that she believes senators voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill in a bid to please Putin; in a recent press conference the president said, ‘Unceremonious involvement in family affairs should not be allowed.’ Popova adds, ‘They’re trying to fulfil his wishes – not seeing that what they’re doing is madness.’

Domestic violence survivors see themselves as expendable. ‘I have no doubt that more women and children will suffer because of this bill,’ Svetlana says. ‘It makes me feel helpless.’

Let us know what you think about this bill at feedback@graziamagazine.co.uk

READ MORE: Women Will Die If These Domestic Violence Refuges Close