Russia’s Feminist Movement, Driven Underground, Radicalizing, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 13 – Putin has worked to suppress Russia’s feminist movement because of its opposition to his war in Ukraine and his imposition of “traditional” and often anti-woman values. Activists say he has succeeded in reducing their public protests but that they are finding new and effective ways to push their broadening agenda.

            Reporting on these trends, Leyla Latypova of The Moscow Times says that because so many Russian men are now absent having been sent to Ukraine, Russian women simultaneously recognize they must act on their own and that they must also work to influence those men still in Russia (themoscowtimes.com/2026/10/13/forced-underground-russias-feminists-find-new-ways-to-keep-working-a93962).

            Because of repression, Russia’s feminists are working privately and offline, thus remaining below the radar screen of Moscow’s siloviki, doing things like driving women who need abortions from places where such operations are banned to places where the procedure is still available.

            Activists say that feminists are also helping survivors of domestic and reproductive violence as well as refuges, migrants and homeless women, groups that they are now doing far more for than they did earlier because as one feminist put it, “people’s needs now aren’t about information but rather about money, medication and logistics.”

            Some Russian feminists have been radicalized to the point that they no longer want to have anything to do with men, but others see the current situation as one where they can gain allies with men who also have been harmed by the war in Ukraine and by other Putin regime policies.

            According to one activist, Dasha Yakovleva, in Russia today, “feminism offers a way to connect the immediate needs [of women and families] with bigger picture questions about the problems Russian society now faces,” including decolonization, a radical traditionalist agenda that seeks to throw all Russians back into the past, and radical income inequality.

            “For me,” she says, “feminism is a very good response at a time of multiple crises, including in the global context because of Russia’s efforts to export its version of traditionalism far beyond the borders of the country.”