Gender Based Violence and Public Policy in Putin’s Russia

The chapter examines the legal and public policy toward gender-based violence in post-Soviet and contemporary Russia. Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the main indicators of gender inequality. In Russia, GBV levels are assumed to be high, prevention and intervention ineffective, and aftercare almost non-existent. At the same time, GBV is under-researched, as the focus of the majority of inquiries into family violence has been on child abuse.

There are several issues with GBV in Russia: gender-blind legislation, the absence of explicit prohibition against discrimination, lack of recognition of the connections between discrimination and violence against women, the lack of public awareness, and ineffective prevention and intervention programs and services. The situation has been slowly changing in the last 5 years, mostly due to the consolidated women’s movement and civil society’s efforts to introduce specialized legislation on GBV and prevention and intervention programs to help survivors of family violence.

The chapter includes (1) an overview of the public and social policies on domestic (family) violence and the available social services for survivors of domestic abuse; (2) an analysis of legislation around GBV and its transformation in the past 30 years; (3) an analysis of the 2016 campaign to criminalize “assault committed by a close person” and consequences of the legislation changes; (4) an examination of the 2019 draft law on prevention of “family-domestic violence” (semeino-bytovoe nasilie) and public discussion around it; (5) an assessment of the impact of pandemic on GBV and public and civil society’s responses to government’s measures.