Russian Parliament Acts to Weaken Domestic Violence Law

By Ed Adamczyk

Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, overwhelmingly passed a bill softening the country's domestic violence law. Photo courtesy of the Kremlin

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The Russian legislature moved to decriminalize domestic violence, reducing penalties for those convicted of assaults in the home.

The proposed amendment to the Russian criminal code, passed in the State Duma, or lower house, is expected to be signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It includes reduced sentences for those convicted of domestic assaults which do not cause serious injury. Referred to as "the slapping bill," it calls for a maximum of 15 days in police custody and a fine, instead of up to two years in prison, for first-time offenders whose assaults do not result in physical harm.

It passed Wednesday in the Duma by a vote of 380-3.

If the bill becomes law, it will take injuries such as concussions or broken bones, or repeated examples of domestic abuse, to lead to criminal charges.

Decriminalized battery

Proponents of the bill point to a July change in the criminal code which decriminalized battery against strangers but maintained battery within the family as a criminal offense. They argued parents should not face harsher penalties for striking their children than their neighbors would, the BBC noted.

"In the traditional Russian family culture, relations between 'fathers and sons' are built upon the authority of parents' power, mutual love and personal indispensability as the basis for children's upbringing," said Yelena B. Mizulina, an initiator of the legislation.

Opponents called it a license for violent behavior within families by authority figures. Russian gender studies specialist Svetlana Aivazova said, "It is clear that lawmakers recognized violence as a norm of family life. This shows that Duma deputies are not simply conservative or traditional, it shows that they are archaic," the New York Times reported.

Citing statistics from the Russian Interior ministry, Aivazova added that more than 9,000 women died in criminal assaults in Russia in 2013 and that "over 25 percent of all murderers were committed in families." Statistics of similar assaults in the United States from 2001 to 2012 show that, on average, about 1,000 women per year die at the hands of a husband or boyfriend. The United States has about twice the population of Russia.

That would imply that Russian families are 2 to 4 times more violent than American families. That's a little disturbing!

Nevertheless, the penalties for murder or significant harm have not been reduced. In fact, it might work to women's advantage for there to be a significant line between slapping and violence causing bodily harm.

The legislation has the active support of the Russian Orthodox Church, which said in a 2016 statement that physical punishment is a Russian tradition to be protected as "an essential right given to parents by God."

Are we talking about wife-beating or child spanking, or perhaps both?