Russia should expand its list of extremist ideologies to include movements such as radical feminism and LGBT in order to protect children from damaging material, a senior official at the country’s media regulator has suggested.
Speaking at a meeting of the Parents’ Chamber, attended by over 200 delegates from parliament, Andrey Tsyganov called on the government to help law enforcement by including a number of “ideologies” on the extremism list.
Tsyganov is head of the Roskomnadzor Commission for the Protection of Children from Destructive Content.
“We need to expand the rights of law enforcers. We have repeatedly suggested this. All kinds of these ideologies – LGBT, radical feminism, furries, childfree – should certainly be recognized as extremism in order to untie the hands of our law enforcers,” Tsyganov said.
As things stand, Russia’s list of extremist movements includes the likes of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, as well as jailed opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
While this is not the first time officials have taken aim at socially liberal movements, Tsyganov is the first to suggest slapping an extremist label on the likes of the childfree movement.
The country’s ruling party, United Russia, has also regularly proposed restrictions on movements it sees as going against traditional values. Earlier this year, MPs from the faction suggested banning “propaganda of bisexuality and polyamory” as a means of increasing the country’s birth rate.