Nina Ostanina, head of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Parenting and Childhood Issues, said the domestic violence law could scare men away from marriage.
Will young people get married if this law is passed? Or men will be afraid, because any touch of his wife at home, judging by the statements of our sometimes impulsive women, can be considered an attack on physical and mental health.
Ostanina said in an interview with the Moscow Agency that the drafters of the draft law on domestic violence should provide “analyses” – “how this will affect the desire to create new families and how this will now affect the divorce process.”
Now, according to Ostanina, “eight out of ten families” are divorced. She expects that if the domestic violence law is passed, “ten out of ten” will get a divorce.
The MP also stated that current legislation already provides for criminal penalties for physical violence, regardless of where it occurs.
They have been trying to pass a law on domestic violence in Russia for more than 10 years. Thus, in 2016, a draft law “On the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the Russian Federation”, with the participation of Oksana Pushkina, who was a deputy at that time, was submitted to the Duma. Consideration of the bill has been frozen.
In 2017, domestic violence was decriminalized. For the first violation, the offender faces a fine of only 5 thousand to 30 thousand rubles, arrest or compulsory labor (most often a fine is imposed), and a criminal penalty is expected only for the second and subsequent cases.
In 2024, the New People’s Faction made a new attempt to pass a law on domestic violence. In 2025, it received a negative review from the government. On June 19, 2026, Ksenia Goryacheva, a representative from the New People’s Party, sent a new draft law on criminal liability for beating of loved ones to the government for review. No feedback received yet.