The new law prohibits private individuals, organizations, and public officials from promoting a childfree lifestyle or encouraging people, both online and in the real world, to refrain from having children.
Violations of the law can lead to fines of up to 400,000 rubles (approximately 40,000 kronor) for individuals and up to five million rubles for companies. Foreigners who violate the law risk being deported.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has intensified its efforts to promote "traditional values" and banned what they describe as "harmful ideologies" from the West.
The new legislation is being introduced at a time when Russia is struggling with demographic challenges in the form of an aging population and low birth rates.
A trend that the Kremlin has called "catastrophic for the nation's future", and which has not been alleviated by the fact that many thousands of men have either fallen in Ukraine or fled the country to avoid the war.
