Russian victims of domestic abuse forced to pay perpetrator’s fine

Rights campaigners condemn law that orders wife to pay spouse’s penalty for violence if they share bank account

Marianna Spring
Tue 19 Dec ‘17 05.00 GMT

Russian women who are victims of domestic abuse are being forced to pay fines handed down to their abusers, campaigners have said.

Controversial amendments to Russian law decriminalised some forms of domestic violence in February. The changes mean violence against a spouse or children that results in bruising or bleeding but not broken bones is punishable by 15 days in prison or a fine of 30,000 rubles (£380) if they do not happen more than once a year. Previously, these offences carried a maximum jail sentence of two years.

Marina Pisklakova-Parker, head of the Anna Centre, an NGO which provides support to victims of domestic abuse, told the Guardian women were “having to pay the fines of the perpetrator of the abuse, if the man does not pay”.

Pisklakova-Parker said she had worked with a woman in a shelter who had received a court notice “demanding that she pays the fine for her husband’s abuse, because the funds come from a shared bank account”.

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