Moscow is on all fronts when it comes to human rights violations. While Russian forces are still engaged in invading Ukraine, at home the Kremlin is turning to minorities. This Thursday, Russian deputies voted at first reading to toughen the controversial law repressing “LGBT propaganda”.
“During the plenary session, the deputies of the State Duma unanimously adopted the first reading of the amendments to the legislation prohibiting the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations,” the parliament said on its website. Two readings are still planned, before the upper house of Parliament, the Council of the Federation, studies it and it can be submitted for signature to President Vladimir Putin, which generally constitutes a simple formality.
The “darkness spread” by Westerners
The 2013 law punishing “LGBT propaganda” among minors is thus reinforced by a ban on the “denial of family values” and the “promotion of non-traditional sexual orientations” among adults as well. These prohibitions concern “the media, the Internet, literature and cinema” or even advertising. “Films promoting non-traditional sex will not receive a distribution certificate,” the Duma warned.
The text also prohibits “information likely to induce the desire to change sex” for children. “We must protect our citizens and Russia from degradation and extinction, from the darkness spread by the United States and European states,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in the statement.
A “military operation” in the “people’s conscience”
These offenses will be punished with heavy fines and foreigners violating this law may be expelled, according to the Duma. Russia has steadily reinforced its conservative turn in recent years in the face of what Vladimir Putin presents as the “decadence” of Western society.
This turn has been further accentuated since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, presented by the Kremlin also as a fight against the Western world, determined, according to Moscow, to eradicate Russia. “Special military operation [en Ukraine] takes place not only on the battlefields, but also in people’s consciousness, in their minds, in their souls, ”MP Alexander Khinchtein noted on Telegram. He thus estimated that on the LGBT issue, Russia is in a “clash of civilizations with the West”.