Russian parliament voted in a new law, according to which Russian women have to marry by the age of 25 or face huge fines. The new legislation is a part of a set of policies to ensure Russia is able to escape the demographic hole and problems caused by the constantly declining and aging population.
The innovative law has been voted in by the majority of delegates in the early hours of the morning today, after a long discussion during the last two days. Part of the Duma and some of oppositional parties were against of fining single Russian women for failing to find a husband by the age of 25.
Interestingly enough, the woman could be married not only to a Russian citizen but also to a foreigner, in order to avoid fines. Russia accepts about 2-3 hundred thousand migrants every year, mostly from the former Soviet Union republics such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and others. There are also some expats from western countries living in Russia.
If a single Russian woman fails to get married by the age of 25, she will have to pay up to 18% of her income in fines. The law initially was planned to include a chapter about fining ladies if they failed to have children by the age of 30 but this part was later scrapped.
The novel rule is reminiscent of the former Soviet regulations that fined men who didn’t have children and childless women who were married, who had to pay 6% of their income to the state (childlessness tax). Single women didn’t have to pay fines. All childless men aged 20-50 and married women without kids aged 20-45 had to pay penalties if they failed to produce an offspring. The official name of the rule was “The tax on bachelors, singles and childless citizens”. Even if your child died the tax was charged. Newlyweds were getting a 1-year grace period following the official registration of the marriage. The childless tax was introduced in 1941 and effectively cancelled only in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian men used to call it, “tax on balls”.
However, this time the legislators decided to put the burden of financial penalties solely on females.
Previously we reported that only 13% of Russian parliamentarians were women, one of the lowest indicators for a country in the post-Soviet space.
One of earlier proponents of reinstating tax on childlessness, Orthodox archpriest Dimitry Smirnov (aka Dmitry Smirnov), had been calling for such measures since 2013.
The new regulation comes to effect immediately.
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The frog told us 🙂
I suspected Elena was up to something for April 1st 🙂
Your sense of humor is fantastic!
Priceless 🙂
Why do I always fall for these April Fools jokes!
Haha that was funny thought it was real for a min
Well, the “new law” is a joke but all the rest is true. Russians used to pay the “childless tax” and there are calls to reintroduce it in order to improve the birth rates in the country.
I believe that the law (or is it only a project) can be called both fair and unfair. On the one hand, yes, the demographic situation in the country is not the best right now, but it is slowly improving: increasing the birth rate, and the mortality rate is not as low. But punished by a fine of single women is unfair, now most of the fairer sex became independent and in no hurry to get married. The law is suitable only for those who are building a good career. And to pay the penalty, not all will be under… Read more »
What a stupid law …
That’s April’s fool
A big lie
I’m happy to find out this article was just a joke for April Fool’s Day. I’m 25 (almost 26) and I don’t feel ready for marriage yet and I think it cannot be forced in any way. As to the demographic hole – I think, the increase should be stimulated by improving the living conditions of people first.
Haha!!! I was very-very surprised when i have just read it before looking at the comments. Can’t imagine the lwa beeing true! So, Elena, it was really funny – thank you! Great joke for April’s fool day!
The sad thing is, this law was not approved by the parliament but it was really suggested, and it means that someone actually came up with this idea. Living in Russia, I don’t know what I would have to do for the government tomorrow. I’ve read a law about walks in the forest being forbidden without payment… I still don’t know whether it was a real law or just some silly suggestion but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was approved. Hopefully, reasonable people would keep the authors of such laws at bay in the future.