Why ‘child-free lifestyles’ are being targeted in Vladimir Putin’s Russia
Lifestyle The Russian parliament is working on a law that would ban what the authorities describe as the harmful promotion of a child-free way of life, with heavy fines for "childlessness propaganda"a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said.Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said parliamentarians had started examining legislation to outlaw what he described as propaganda on the internet, in films, in advertising, and in the media that encourages "a conscious refusal to have children".Putin, who has portrayed Russia as a bastion of "traditional values" locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children, saying that will help secure the future of Russians.Birth rates down, mortality upThe issue has taken on greater urgency for the authorities after official...
