Russian lawmakers updated and expanded an anti-LGBT law this week, the latest in a series of measures aimed at promoting "traditional" family values. Russian political and religious leaders are intensifying an internal identity war against the backdrop of conflict in Ukraine.
Russian MPs on Thursday voted to extend a law banning all forms of LGBT "propaganda". When it was first introduced in 2013 the law purported to prevent minors from seeing content that framed LGBT relationships in a positive light. Nine years later it has been expanded to include adults, forbidding "the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations" in all media, books, films and online.
This is the latest move in a shift towards conservatism from Russian authorities that dates back to the early 2000s. At the heart of messaging from the Kremlin is the defence of so-called traditional Russian values against "harmful" Western influence.
"Russian society has been searching for its identity since the 2000, since the failure of liberal values that it was inclined towards at the end of the Soviet Union," says Viatcheslav Avioutskii, professor of international relations specialising in Russia and Ukraine at ESSCA School of Management in Angers. "Today Russia is pursuing this with even more intensity. Lacking unanimous support for its war in Ukraine, Russian leaders have launched a conservative initiative of 'ideological purification' as it sees the Russian population as being at risk from harmful Western influences."
It is in this context that Vyacheslav Volodin, the president of the legislative branch of the Russian Parliament, the Duma, on Thursday presented the update on the law banning LGBT "propaganda". "We have our own traditions and our own values," he said, adding that the new legislation would "protect our children and the future of this country against darkness spread by the US and European countries".
This is the latest step towards eroding gay rights in Russia, counterbalanced by encouragement to live by "traditional" family values.
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