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Russia Today
4 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Major Russian city backs fines for promoting abortion
Lawmakers in the Russian city of St. Petersburg have advanced a bill that would impose fines on individuals and organizations that coerce women into having abortions. The Legislative Assembly passed the measure on Wednesday in its second reading. The legislation would penalize acts such as persuasion, bribery, deception or other pressure aimed at ending a pregnancy. Fines would range from 3,000 rubles ($40) for individuals to 50,000 rubles ($600) for officials and legal entities. Punishments can be imposed even if an abortion does not occur. Medical advice from a doctor based on social or health indications would not count as a violation. The bill's explanatory note says it aims to support family and motherhood and tackle Russia's demographic problems. According to Rosstat, the country recorded 1.22 million births in 2024, down 3.4% from 2023, making it the worst year since 1999. 'Our demography is at such a low level that… it's a number one problem,' said MP Pavel Krupnik, one of the sponsors of the bill. 'According to statistics, 500,000 abortions were performed in 2024, of which only 25% were for medical reasons. Just imagine what we're doing ourselves.' He added that many women lose the ability to have children after terminating a pregnancy. The bill still needs final approval in a third reading to become law. Similar measures have passed in more than ten Russian regions, including Bryansk, where a comparable law takes effect on September 1. Authorities in Murmansk and Pskov have proposed alternative legislation to fight abortions, suggesting paying doctors bonuses for persuading women to keep their pregnancies. St. Petersburg lawmakers are currently weighing draft amendments to the Social Code to offer payments to pregnant college students to discourage them from delaying childbirth. Abortions remain legal in Russia and are covered by national health insurance. Terminations are allowed up to 12 weeks on request, up to 22 weeks for social reasons, such as being the result of rape or in the case of death or disability of the husband, and at any stage for medical reasons. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in March that efforts to prevent abortion led to more than 37,000 women choosing to carry their pregnancies to term last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously opposed banning abortions, instead emphasizing the importance of creating favorable economic and social conditions to encourage people to have larger families and increase the birth rate.
Russia Today
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Russia Today
Putin signs new ‘made in Russia' taxi law
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law promoting the local production of taxicabs used in the country. The relevant document was published on the state portal for legal information on Friday. According to the legislation, passenger cars would have to meet two conditions in order to be included in the taxi registry: either score a sufficient number of localization points or be produced under a special investment contract signed between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2025. A vehicle scores localization points for the use of Russian components and raw materials or for being assembled in the country. The required level of localization, which is currently 3,200 points, is slated to be increased to 3,700 points in 2028. The new rules will go into force in most of Russia's regions on March 1, 2026. They will not apply to vehicles added to the taxi registry before that date. The bill on the localization of taxicabs was introduced in the Russian parliament in 2023 and voted on by MPs earlier this month. One of the authors of the initiative, Andrey Kutepov, who heads the Committee on Economic Policy at the Russian Federation Council, said on Wednesday that 'the taxi fleet remains vulnerable in view of sanctions pressure' on Russia by the West. The law will allow the Russian automobile industry to sell between 40,000 and 50,000 extra vehicles every year, while also providing an additional 10 to 12 billion rubles ($124-150 million) in tax revenues for the state, Kutepov argued.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Russian survivor of Leningrad Siege fined for protesting Ukraine war
Russian activist Lyudmila Vasilyeva, an 84-year-old survivor of the siege of Leningrad in World War Two, has been fined by a court after protesting Russia's war in her sentencing hearing in St Petersburg on Friday, Ms Vasilyeva was ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($126; £93) for "discrediting" the Russian army. The charges related to a handwritten poster she held up earlier this year which read: "People, let's stop the war. We are responsible for peace on the planet Earth. With love, Lyudmila Vasilyeva, child of the Leningrad blockade."Russia has cracked down on criticism of its military action in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022. In an interview with AFP ahead of her hearing at Kuibyshevsky District Court on Friday, she said she felt "bitterness" and "hurt" over the fate of her country."I have always been someone who is not indifferent, from childhood. I have always been on the side of the weak," she was greeted by dozens of supporters outside the courtroom. Footage showed her holding flowers and receiving for yellow and blue shoes: How Russian laws smother dissentThe 84-year-old survived the Siege of Leningrad as a very young child with her four siblings and mother. The military blockade of Leningrad by Nazi Germany lasted 872 days, from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944. About 800,000 people died from hunger, cold and shelling by Nazi to AFP, Ms Vasilyeva recalled that her mother used to tell her: "'We will get through everything, as long as there is no war'".The name of the city of Leningrad was restored to its pre-Soviet era name, St Petersburg, in Vasilyeva has long been a critic of Russia's war with Ukraine having been detained several times in 2022. Last year, she ran for governor of St Petersburg but failed to collect the required number of signatures for a nomination, as reported by BBC Russian law that penalises "discrediting" the army has been applied to a broad variety of actions, which the Kremlin interprets as either support for Ukraine or criticism of the include displaying anti-war posters, with messages ranging from "No War" to eight asterisks - the number of Russian letters that spell "No War".The war in Ukraine has been raging for more than three years and military experts estimate between 165,000 and 235,000 Russian service personnel have been killed since the full-scale last updated its casualty figures in December 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian military deaths. Western analysts believe this figure is an under-estimate.
