Moscow, Convinced ‘Violence is Main Way to Solve Any Problem,’ has Little Interest in Limiting It in the Home, Women’s Rights Lawyer Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 13 – During its current term, the Duma, at the insistence of the Russian Government, has rejected all six attempts to pass laws limiting violence in the family. Most analysts point to the Kremlin’s commitment to traditional values and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.

            But according to a lawyer who specializes on women’s issues, speaking to Horizontal Russia on condition of anonymity, the real reason is broader, deeper and even more disturbing: the regime doesn’t want to do anything that undermines its belief that ‘violence is the main way to solve problems” (semnasem.org/articles/2026/07/13/gde-zhenshinam-na-rusi-zhit-horosho).

            The lawyer argues that “it is important to understand that violence in the family, society and in the state is very connected.  If the state believes that violence is the main way to solve problems” – and that is clearly the case under Putin – “then we will not see any effective work of the authorities with domestic violence.”

After all, she continues, “for society to approve of interstate violence or violence of the state towards its citizens, it should generally be tolerant of violence. And if a person has grown up in a family where violence is unacceptable, he will naturally not be tolerant of any form. Therefore, it is not profitable for the state to create a culture of rejection of violence.”

Her words come at the end of a 7,000 word article summarizing research conducted by Horizontal Russia about the conditions of women across the Russian Federation and the attitudes of officials and the population to the situation women in that country find themselves in at the present time.

Among the key findings of this research are the following:

·       In regions where women are treated less well, they are 50 to 100 percent more likely to give birth as teenage girls, 50 to 150 percent less likely to graduate from at least nine years of school and die two to five years earlier than are those in the country as a whole. In regions where women are doing better, the reverse is true. 

·       Russian women in the worst regions are significantly  more likely to be victims of violent crime in general and sexualized violence in particular.

·       Differences in income explain some of these differences but far from all. In some regions with higher incomes, crime against women is higher than in others where women have lower incomes.