Moscow/Some 3,000 women were murdered in Russia between 2022 and 2024 due to gender violence, estimates the Russian opposition portal The Insiderin a note published this Tuesday for which they rely on reports from human rights activists and figures presented by the country at the United Nations.
Additionally, a report presented by the independent project Algoritmo de la Luz placed the number of women murdered by gender violence at 2,284 between 2022 and 2023, 2,123 of them at the hands of their partners.
That NGO pointed out that the numbers have remained stable since 2011, with a rebound in the years of the coronavirus and the consequent home quarantines, when it increased by more than 70%.
“Women are more likely not to follow through with complaints and are less likely to file them. They no longer trust the system”
“Women are more likely not to follow through with complaints and are less likely to file them. They no longer trust the system. They fear that disclosure of the fact will lead to harassment (of the victim),” said an anonymous activist quoted by The Insider.
The Government censors and persecutes non-profit organizations and shelters for victims that try to raise social and political awareness of the abuse of women by their partners and family members.
Activists warn that the problem has been exacerbated by the war, as many fighters return from the Ukrainian front with post-traumatic disorders and channel it through violence.
Furthermore, many of them are former abusers who have escaped their prison sentences in exchange for enlisting in the Russian army and have reoffended.
The Insider narrates many cases of recidivism in the absence of punitive legislation for cases of gender violence and domestic violence. In many cases, despite dozens of complaints from different people, the police only talk to the abuser to try to dissuade him from attacking again.
Women there face a completely patriarchal culture in which honor crimes are widespread.
The experts cited by that portal agree that official data do not reflect the true magnitude of the problem in Russia and emphasize that in national legislation there is not even an official definition of what constitutes this type of aggression.
For example, the Ministry of the Interior does not include in its domestic violence reports cases of attacks against women committed by couples to whom they are not legally married. Situations resolved without a court ruling are also excluded.
The regions that register the highest rates of gender violence are those of the North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Women there face a completely patriarchal culture in which honor crimes are widespread for which, in collaboration with regional security forces, women have been persecuted even outside the country with the aim of murdering them.
At the end of March, the Russian senator and head of the Legislation Committee of that chamber, Andrei Klishás, justified the absence of legislation in Russia to criminalize domestic violence because it violates the traditional family.
In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin partially decriminalized domestic violence, reducing it to an administrative offense if it did not have serious consequences and was a first crime.
