Moscow bans the adoption of Russian children to countries that allow gender reassignment

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bill on Saturday adoption ban Russian children by citizens of countries where gender change is legal.

The Kremlin leader also approved legislation banning the distribution of this type of material encourages people not to have children.

Bills that have been previously approved by both houses of the Russian parliamentfollow the range of laws they have suppressed sexual minorities and reinforced long-standing conventional values.

Speaker of Russia’s lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, who was one of the authors of the new law, said in a July Telegram post that “it is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender change that adopted children in these countries may face.”

The adoption ban would apply in at least 15 countries, most of them in Europe, as well as Australia, Argentina and Canada. The adoption of Russian children by US citizens was banned in 2012.

Other bills passed Saturday ban what they describe as childfree propaganda and impose fines of up to 5 million rubles (about $50,000). Her supporters argued that public arguments against having children were part of alleged Western efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.

In recent years, Putin and other top officials have increasingly called for adherence to so-called traditional values ​​as a counter to Western liberalism. As Russia’s population shrinks, Putin has made statements in favor of large families, and last year he insisted that women should have as many as eight children.

Last year, Russia banned gender reassignment medical procedures and its Supreme Court considered the LGBTQ+ “movement” to be extremist.

In 2022, Putin signed the law ban on disseminating LGBTQ+ information to people of all ages, extending the ban on distributing materials to minors issued in 2013.

Since sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin leader has repeatedly characterized the West as “satanic” and accused it of trying to weaken Russia by exporting liberal ideologies.

Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition activists in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years, which has intensified significantly in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. Hundreds of non-governmental groups and private individuals participated in the action marked as “foreign agent” — a label that suggests additional government control and carries strong pejorative connotations.