about 700,000 Russians may regularly experience violence

Every year, about 700,000 Russians may experience domestic violence. This follows from a long-term study by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

According to the results of a longitudinal study, in which about 40 thousand Russians took part, almost 10% of citizens – more than 14 million people – are in severe depression. It is not known whether we are talking about the established diagnosis or about the self-perception of the respondents.

Among the difficult life situations that affect the quality of their lives, the interviewees mentioned loneliness, serious illness, the death of a loved one, repayment of loans and domestic violence.

“Here we see a huge potential for our country, because in terms of GDP per capita, a number of countries have similar indicators as Russia, but at the same time it looks better than us in terms of social progress,” said the head of ASI Svetlana Chupsheva, who presented the results of the study. “Growth points” agency sees in the sphere of health care, education and income of citizens, euphemistically pointed out the problems of Chupshev.

Today, mainly non-governmental centers fight domestic violence in Russia: “Nasiliyu.net”, “Syostri”, “Ingo” and others. The government has stopped solving the problem at the legislative level. Over the past ten years, draft laws on the prevention of domestic violence have been submitted to the State Duma more than 40 times, but have not passed a single reading. In 2017, the article on beatings was removed from the Russian Criminal Code, and administrative responsibility was introduced for domestic violence.

• According to the United Women’s Non-Governmental Consortium, almost two-thirds (61%) of the women killed in Russia in 2018 were victims of domestic violence. According to Rosstat, 8,300 women were killed in that hour, so there were about five thousand victims of domestic violence among them. These figures are 20 times higher than the police data on victims of domestic violence.