Putin approves legal change that decriminalises domestic violence

Critics say amendment sends wrong message in country where it is estimated domestic abuse kills a woman every 40 minutes

Alena Popova stages a lone protest against the legal amendments in Moscow last month. Photograph: Vladimir Gerdo/Tass

Vladimir Putin has signed into law a controversial amendment that decriminalises domestic violence.

The amendment, which sailed through both houses of Russian parliament before Tuesday’s presidential signing, has elicited anger from critics who say that it sends the wrong message in a country where, according to some estimates, one woman dies every 40 minutes from domestic abuse.

From now on, beatings of spouses or children that result in bruising or bleeding but not broken bones are punishable by 15 days in prison or a fine, if they do not happen more than once a year. Previously, they carried a maximum jail sentence of two years.

Alena Popova, an activist who has campaigned against the law, said it would be fine to pass the amendments if a draft law specifically aimed at tackling domestic violence was passed at the same time. But that law, which provides for restraining orders and other safeguards in domestic abuse cases, is stalled in parliament and is not expected to be passed.

“Passing these amendments and not passing the other law is another sign that our society refuses to take this problem seriously,” she said.

Defenders of the law say it closes a nonsensical loophole by which violent acts committed by family members are punished more harshly than those committed by strangers.

“The question is not whether it’s OK to hit or not. Of course it isn’t. The question is how to punish people and what you should punish them for,” said Olga Batalina, one of the MPs who drafted the law.

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