Kremlin wants to legitimize the so-called “traditional values” – a mix of antiquated gender norms, homophobia, racism etc. – on the state level so badly that they go to great length to create a scary and ridiculous strawman out of human rights protection. This medieval thinking is great for authoritarian regimes, since it stigmatizes socio-cultural progress and also reduces trust towards basic democratic principles, since the propaganda does not distinguish political and humanitarian spheres and just vilifies “Western values”. Russian establishment tries to participate in the fight against 21st century – from politicians like Vladimir Zhyrinovsky, who said women dream of being raped, to the active involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in political processes. Meanwhile, in Global Gender Gap Index 2020 Russian Federation ranks 81st in the world, between El Salvador and Ethiopia and official Russian statistics, which are likely to downplay the problem for a number of reasons including how often cases remain unreported, insist that “domestic violence takes place in approximately one out of ten Russian families”.
