In Russia,
36,000 women are beaten by their partners every day.
One woman dies from domestic violence
every 40 minutes.
Abusers have enjoyed impunity in Russia for years.
Beating up a family member only became a crime there in July 2016,
when President Vladimir Putin introduced the concept of domestic abuse into the criminal code.
But that law was only in place for seven months.
Isobel Yeung traveled to Russia to understand the country’s rejection of women’s rights.
— Why is that? What happened here?
— Gulnara Orlova was abused by her ex-husband for 20 years.
— She has a pin in her shoulder,
a metal plate in her knee,
and a broken bone in her skull that caused brain damage
and left her deaf in one ear.
Her husband once hacked her with an axe.
— So even with that solid evidence, the authorities still did nothing.
— Russian authorities dismissed Gulnara’s complaints,
saying there were no other witnesses.
— Did you ever fear for your daughter’s life?
— Stories like Gulnara’s led Vladimir Putin
to criminalize domestic violence in July 2016.
Under those laws,
beatings by relatives were punishable by up to 360 hours of community service,
a year of forced labor,
or up to two years in prison.
But that didn’t last long.
This February, just seven months after those laws had been set,
the government softened their stance on domestic abuse.
First-time offenders, or those involved in non-life-threatening beatings,
will now spend 15 days in jail,
complete just 120 hours of community service,
or pay a fine of 30,000 rubles—
the equivalent of $500.
— Vitaly Milonov is one of the politicians behind this latest decriminalization.
— I mean, this move to decriminalize has been widely condemned internationally
as step back on Russia’s human rights.
— I mean, how is that not counter-progressive?
— Okay.
The politician Yevgeny Roizman has said that there has been a sharp increase
in domestic violence cases since this decriminalization.
— Do you think that the increase of domestic violence
is something that you’re willing to risk with this decriminalization?
— Mari Davtyan is one of the lawyers who drafted the law against family violence
that Putin passed last year.
She says that Russia has always struggled with domestic abuse,
and that even for the short period the criminalization law was in effect,
it was rarely applied.
— What was the worst thing that he did to you?
— Gulnara’s ex-husband was sent to prison in December 2015,
after he beat a neighbor to death over his lost phone.