The politician behind Russia’s anti-gay law wants to decriminalise domestic violence
The politician from Russia who introduced the country’s anti-gay “propaganda” law has said she wants to decriminalise domestic violence.
Yelena Mizulina, a member of the Russian parliament’s upper house, introduced the 2013 law which bans the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors.
The law has been widely condemned and led for calls to boycott Russia during the Sochi Winter Olympics.
But now Mizulina has introduced legislation which would decriminalise domestic violence, which is currently punishable with fines of up to 40,000 rubles ($600), or two years in jail.
According to Russian media, the amendments she has introduced would reduce punishments for spousal or child abuse to misdemeanor or administrative offences.
She said the current punishments are unacceptable, calling them “absurd”.
Since Mizulina’s anti-gay ‘propaganda’ bill was introduced, LGBT rights groups in Russia have seen a rise in the number of anti-LGBT incidents including violence.
Russian lawmakers later drafted a bill that would criminalise any “demonstration of one’s distorted sexual preferences in public places.”
In November, two senior Russian MPs – Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolai Arefyev – presented a bill calling for people who come out as LGBT to be imprisoned for up to 15 days.
