Don’t even think about not having children. If you’re Russian.

Russia’s parliament is considering legislation to outlaw “a conscious refusal to have children.”

The State Duma lower house bill proposes fines of 400,000 roubles [$4,354 USD] for anyone engaging in “child-free propaganda,” rising to $8,639 USD if the person discussing the concept is an official or $53,906 USD for a company.

And only those with approved religious beliefs (Russia’s Orthodox Church has monks and nuns), serious health issues or who have been raped will be permitted to “refuse to bear a child.”

But individuals even casually defending a personal choice not to have children on social media will fall foul of the new laws.

Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin insists the proposed legislation is more about “traditional family values” than Russia’s falling birthrate and mass deaths among its young troops fighting in the invasion of Ukraine.

“Groups and communities on social networks often show disrespect for motherhood and fatherhood, and aggression towards pregnant women and children, as well as members of large families,” said Volodin.

“A friendly and large family is the basis of a strong state.”

The legislation targets social media posts, the internet, traditional media, films, books and advertising.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he supported the move, stating Russia’s “catastrophic” birthrate is a pressing issue.

“Increasing the birthrate is one of the top priorities for the entire government and the entire country,” he said.

Lie back and think of Putin

Earlier this month, President Putin instructed his government to promote conditions that made “having many children become fashionable again, as it used to be, with seven or 10 people in a family.”

Last week, officials announced a new workplace Key Performance Indicator (KPI) would be whether or not female employees were pregnant.

To that end, employers were encouraged to offer regular “conjugal breaks” during working hours.

The Kremlin insists there is a large-scale, organized “child-free” movement undermining the nation’s future. It points to a handful of social media chat rooms (few of which have more than 5000 followers) as evidence of the conspiracy.

“These [moves] have been taken before against LGBTQ+ propaganda and gender reassignment,” Volodin said in his Duma address.

The new legislation, introduced to Russia’s parliament on Wednesday, is based on a 2022 law that banned “LGBT propaganda”. Its enforcement effectively criminalized any public expression or appearance of a homosexual or trans identity.

Such rigor is also likely to be applied to anyone flaunting, encouraging or defending childlessness.

“Everything that needs to be done to increase the birthrate must be done. And everything that hinders this should disappear from our lives,” Putin’s spokesman said.

This, however, does not include ending the invasion that is believed to have killed or wounded more than 500,000 Russian soldiers. Some estimates put this at about 2 per cent of the total Russian male population aged between 20 and 50.

‘Protecting values’

“We should ban the childless movement by law because this is a foreign project; it is a hostile project,” the chairwoman of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house, said during a debate on the new legislation.

“They are instilling in women’s brains, using the most modern technologies, that they should give up motherhood,” Valentina Matviyenko added.

It’s just one statement amid a growing campaign of painting Western rights and gender equality movements as “enemies of freedom”.

“I call this ideology the ideology of death, the destruction of the family,” Russian Human Rights Council chairman Valery Fadeyev said last year.

Russia last year banned sex reassignment surgery. It also ended the ability to change gender on official documentation.

Now, the Duma is considering a new bill to outlaw private clinic abortions. Only state-controlled clinics will be allowed to conduct the procedure if the pregnancy is deemed to be a severe threat to the mother’s life, or the result of incest or rape.

And these will only be allowed up to nine weeks after conception instead of the current 12.

Several Russian provinces have already begun to enact similar laws.

New demographic figures have revealed Russia’s birthrate has fallen to its lowest since the end of the Soviet Union.

Last year, its population actually declined. Some 1.3 million people died. Only 1.26 million children were born to replace them.

Immigration has also collapsed from 8.5 million to 6 million as Putin’s authoritarian regime, flagging economy and conscription for his invasion of Ukraine makes Russia a less attractive destination.

This is unlikely to change.

This week, Russia’s parliament also moved to protect the “honour” of government officials.

Any public or online criticism that “disrespects the honor or dignity of a government employee in terms of his personal or professional qualities” will be punished by up to two years in prison.