‘It could undermine the traditional family’

Insiders say the Kremlin is keeping an anti-domestic violence law in limbo on purpose. Here’s why.

Domestic violence has been a popular topic of discussion among Russian officials in recent weeks. On June 12, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the right-wing nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, said the party’s faction had sent a package of draft laws aimed at combating the problem to the government for review. According to inside sources who spoke to the outlet Verstka, however, this legislation has no chance of being passed: the Putin administration promised the Russian Orthodox Church last year that no anti-domestic violence law will make it to the books. At the same time, the Kremlin has given deputies permission to talk freely about the initiative for their own PR purposes. Meduza shares the main takeaways from Verstka’s reporting.

The Russian authorities promised the Russian Orthodox Church in 2023 that no law aimed at combating domestic violence would be passed in the foreseeable future, a source close to the Putin administration told Verstka. “They’ve put a definitive veto [on anti-domestic violence initiatives]. At least until the special military operation is over, I think, there definitely won’t be any [such laws],” he said.

According to the source, negotiations on the matter involved Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill and the country’s “top officials,” and the agreement they reached will be in effect “indefinitely.” The Church opposes anti-domestic violence legislation because “while it’s one thing to speak [publicly] about this topic, it’s something else entirely to give feminists and pro-Western forces a law that they can manipulate to their own ends,” the source explained. Church officials believe that such a law could bring consequences that would “undermine the foundations of the traditional family,” he added.

A second source familiar with the discussions also said that the Putin administration has given Church officials a guarantee that no anti-domestic violence law will be passed.

“This issue does need to be addressed from an objective standpoint, but the stream of requests will be endless. Lawmakers can provide gradual assistance in specific cases, but the patriarch was assured that there will definitely be no law on domestic violence,” he said.

A source close to Russia’s parliament emphasized that the State Duma’s leadership made clear to deputies that while no anti-domestic violence law will be passed, they are free to comment on the issue. The source noted that the topic is “relatively safe” and “relatively populist.”

Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the approval ratings of several of Russia’s parliamentary parties have begun to fall, according to the Kremlin-run Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM). Political scientists have suggested that this is because voters have stopped perceiving a difference between the various parties since their representatives rarely criticize the authorities and voice nearly identical opinions about most issues.

“They needed a topic that appears frequently in the media and that they can comment on and introduce a bill for,” the source explained. At the same time, he said, lawmakers have been told not to focus on soldiers who “beat their wives after returning from the special military operation.”