Proposed Change in Minimum Marriage Age in Russia Raises Larger Issues of Federalism

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 5 – Russian law specifies 18 as the minimum age for marriage but allows republics to make exceptions. Now, the Russian government is working on a draft bill that would allow the republics in the North Caucasus where early marriages are common to permit even more of them.

            Russian deputies are divided on this issue, with some favoring lowering the standard marriage age or opening the way for more early marriages and others opposed to either of these steps (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344360/ and deita.ru/ru/news/s-uchetom-severnogo-kavkaza-sovfed-prokommentiroval-snizhenie-brachnogo-vozrasta/).

            The supporters of change say the Russian government should make exceptions to the marriage age for the North Caucasus where traditions of early marriage are still strong, while opponents say that to do so is to rob girls of their childhood and possibilities for education and a career.

            One of the factors behind these discussions is demography: The average age of entry into marriage in Russia has risen and now is in the late 20s or even older in many parts of the country. That has the effect of further depressing the numbers of children such pairs will have over their lifetimes.

            But the bill, which isn’t scheduled to be submitted to the Duma until early 2021, raises larger issues of federalism.  On the one hand, Vladimir Putin has pressed the regions and republics to bring their laws into correspondence with federal ones and has generally opposed any exceptions, despite the fact that the current proposals run in the opposite direction.

            And on the other, even in areas where federal subjects are supposed to have the power to decide, Russian legislators in the capital are clearly convinced that the center and not the republics or regions should decide what rules will be enforced at least most of the time, again even though this proposal raises the question as to whether there may be movement on that.

            Consequently, discussions on this measure are likely to be highly emotional and political and to spill over into other issues. After all, if Moscow is ready to make concessions to the cultural traditions in the North Caucasus on this question, why shouldn’t that region and others demand concessions based on different ones?