Children play outside the Victory Museum at Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, Russia, 27 August 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

Deputies in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, have adopted legislation banning so-called “child-free propaganda”, or publicly advocating for not having children, the Duma announced on Tuesday.

Six existing laws prohibiting the promotion of “paedophilia, LGBT and gender reassignment” were amended in their second and third readings by deputies to include a ban on the “dissemination of destructive content that promotes the deliberate refusal to have children”, according to the Duma website

Individuals spreading “child-free propaganda” in broadcast media or online, will now face fines of up to 400,000 rubles (€3,840), while companies can be fined as much as 5 million rubles (€48,000) for the same offence, while foreign citizens will face deportation.

The Duma also approved an amendment exempting those living child-free lifestyles in religious communities from prosecution under the law.

Last month Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that while it was ultimately “up to women” to decide whether to have children, “there should be no propaganda putting pressure on women … which is what is happening now in the US and Europe”.

“We must do everything so that the next generations grow up focused on traditional family values,” Volodin, who was also one of the authors of the initiative, said on Tuesday.

The State Duma also unanimously passed another Volodin-led bill banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries that allow transgender transition, which Volodin has described as aimed at “protecting childhood and traditional values”.