Authors

Marina Iaroslavtseva¹;  ¹ Personal capacity, Russian Federation

Discussion

The growth of political violence and the aggravation of gender issues, especially in the field of family law, have marked the last years in Russia. After Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the situation has been significantly escalated, which has an immediate effect on gender imbalance. In autumn 2022 Putin signed a bill that expands a ban on so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in Russia, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.” He also published a decree № 809, stating the necessary protection of “traditional values”, which also refers to the “strengthening family relationships” as one of the high priorities of the government.

The decriminalization of domestic violence in 2017 and persistent insistence of conservatives on protecting “family values” were also amongst the main reasons for gender discrimination. This intervention into the personal lives of citizens and attempt to unify them by imposing specific restrictions on self-expression and excluding any other kinds of family relations (LGBTQ+) coincide with the aspiration of the authorities to reinforce its authoritarianism and to impose it on the younger generations. 

The traditional model of family so fiercely protected by official policy is based on quotidian suppression. The cultural norms suppose that the members of family should be nonactive in political terms, respect the authorities and the hierarchy of power. The subordination inside a family unit also supposes patriarchal norms embodied in the unofficial domination of men. This leads to a contradiction because there are a lot of men in Russia who evade their paternal duties: it is a common situation when the children are raised only by mothers and grandmothers. The main controversy lies in the definition of the traditional values because there is no intelligible ideology based on these principles. Moreover, it is impossible to imagine one in terms of a multinational and multi-confessional state, but Russia tends to ignore the needs and beliefs of other nationalities and tries to impose a single imaginable traditional family: a heteronormative nuclear one. The other ways of organizing a family unit are strictly prohibited and persecuted. But in fact, Russian policy is not about well-being of the families, it is about something else.

The Russian Orthodox Church plays here a crucial role as it intensively stands against the protection of domestic victims because they interpret help as an interference into the private matters. The ROC has a significant political influence regarding family issues, therefore this new kind of "symphonia" could be very alarming as its discourses of traditional values tend to reinforce the power structures of an autocracy.