Violence against Russian women

A Russian man can kill his wife and no one will stop him

Approximately 14,000 women a year die in Russia at the hands of their husbands. As Russian human rights activists say, there is violence against women all over the world, but no country refuses to take action as persistently as Russia.

When her husband, a successful Moscow engineer, beat Elena for the first time, her relatives and friends advised her to be patient and wait for better times, even assuming that she herself “provoked” her husband. Finally, Sergey beat Elena so that she went to the hospital with head injuries, her body was littered with hematomas and abrasions. The woman filed for divorce, but the judge did not hurry and all the time advised her to make peace with her husband.

Since that time, Sergey has beaten his wife 16 times, including right in front of the courthouse. Elena got to the hospital several times, once with two torn nails. She submitted seven applications to the police, but the case still did not open. Finally, she hired a lawyer. But the judge denied one accusation after another. The last time Sergey was assassinated for assault was 90 hours of community service. Elena is preparing a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

Almost 40 women killed per day

“I can kill you, and no one will stop me” is the report of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, which, in addition to Elena's fate, describes the share of dozens of other Russian wives. For example, the fate of Olga, 30 years old, for which everything ended much worse. She called the police in the western Russian city of Oryol, asking for protection from her husband, who beats her. But the employee who answered her explained: "Do not call again, we still will not arrive." When the desperate woman continued to insist, warning that her husband could kill her, she heard a sarcastic answer: “Do not worry. That's when he kills you, we will come and inspect your corpse. ” After 20 minutes, Olga was killed.

According to unofficial estimates, approximately 14,000 women die in Russia annually at the hands of their family members, particularly their husbands. That is 40 women per day. As Russian human rights activists say, there is violence against women all over the world, but no country refuses to do anything against it as persistently as Russia. The list of recommendations to the Russian state that Human Rights Watch included in its report ranked four pages.

At the same time in the Russian parliament for several years now lies a draft law against domestic violence. But recently the draft law was blocked, and the existing law was even mitigated: domestic violence in Russia now does not apply to criminal offenses, but to administrative offenses - in any case, as a result of beatings, there is no bone fracture and similar offenses happen no more than once a year. In most cases, domestic fines are imposed for monetary violence, which are often paid from the family budget. Or even the woman herself.

As the wrong parking

In Russia when a man beats his wife, there are no more consequences for him than for improper parking, human rights activist Yulia Gorbunova, the author of the report, complains. According to her, violent men quickly realized that domestic violence is no longer a criminal offense, and they believe that their hands are now untied. As numerous Russian women in the Gorbunova report say, their tormentors are absolutely sure that no one will come to the aid of the victims. Even those policemen who understand their responsibility have their hands tied in this legal situation: “We can put a man in a jail so that he can sleep and sober up,” says one of the policemen. - But then he goes home. Yes, and often women in a couple of days take statements back. "

Many Russian wives are financially dependent on their husbands, especially if there are children in the family. Rent another apartment in Russia is almost impossible. There are practically no rented apartments on the market, and if they appear, they are very expensive. Most families are forced to live in a two-room apartment with grandparents. True, if a woman still decides to leave her tormentor, then in our time she can go to the state shelter for women. But such shelters are only available in large cities, and in each of them there are no more than two hundred places. But worst of all, many places in shelters remain unoccupied, because the bureaucratic barriers for those who want to go there, sometimes absurdly high. Required to provide a bunch of documents to only submit an application.

A Russian woman Svetlana collected all the documents, but as written in the report, she had to wait for a response from the women's shelter in Samara, while her husband beat her more and more cruelly. Finally, she received a refusal with the rationale that it was too dangerous to place her in a shelter due to the aggressiveness of her husband. But there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped - Svetlana was taken to a private women's shelter elsewhere in the country. But many other women, after the refusal, have no choice but to return to the apartment they share with their husbands, where their torment will continue.