Across Russia, Police Increasingly Take Side of Aggressors in Cases of Family Violence, ‘Ad Rem’ Report Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar.17 – In cases of family violence, police across Russia now take the side of the aggressors and thus become their “accomplices” rather than defending the victims of such attacks, a pattern that originated in the North Caucasus but has become almost universal in that country after family violence was decriminalized, research by the Ad Rem group says.

            In a detailed study released earlier this year and now discussed by Novaya Gazeta, sociologists say that the situation of the victims, overwhelmingly but not exclusively women, is thus deteriorating (adrem.help/wp-content/uploads/2025/12 /Преследование-вместо-защиты-1.pdf and novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/03/17/kavkazskie-praktiki-po-usmireniiu-zhertv-domashnego-nasiliia-teper-primeniaiut-po-vsei-rossii).

            The failure of the police to defend the victims and thus allow the perpetrators of such violence to get away with it reflects “an attitude shared by Russian society at large that domestic violence is a private family matter,” Novaya Gazeta says. Most Russians believe that any problems within the family should be solve there rather than involve anyone else.

            That has long been the North Caucasian model, but now Russian law enforcement in almost all places “view the problem of domestic violence in much the same way.” And any police who disagree now lack a law punishing such violence if they seek to protect the victim, making that extremely difficult.  

            “Consequently,” they continue, “and largely due to the decriminalization of domestic violence, the perpetrator often receives a punishment in the form of an administrative fine lower than the penalty for illegal parking.” But Ad Rem points to an even “more alarming trend: a shift from a passively negative state stance to increasingly active state intervention.”

            But now, the report says and the Novaya Gazeta commentary concurs, this intervention is “on the side of the aggressor” rather than on the victim, thus giving a green light to those who commit such violence in the Russian Federation and providing little hope for those who are their victims.