Nearly 3,000 women have died from domestic violence during the pandemic in Russia

Data on female mortality from domestic violence in the country was published by the Consortium of Women's Non-Governmental Associations (NGOs).

Analysts came to these conclusions after studying 11,175 court verdicts for "murder", "murder in the heat of passion" and "intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm," Kommersant notes.

After reviewing the data, the government of the Russian Federation promised to include the topic of protection against domestic violence in the National Action Strategy for Women for 2023-2030.

Earlier, also based on these court verdicts, it was reported that in the previous eight years (from 2011 to 2019), 12,209 women died from crimes by husbands and partners.

The researchers indicated that out of 11,175 new verdicts published on the portal of the State Antimonopoly Service “Pravosudie” and the website of the Moscow City Court, 3,759 verdicts were found based on the facts of the murders of women. Human rights activists believe that they managed to reveal only part of the real statistics, which may turn out to be even more horrific. They explain the difference between discovered and actual cases by the fact that a number of verdicts are not published, and some are published with a delay.

As the reasons that pushed husbands and cohabitants to kill their loved ones, the sentences cite the loss of a job due to the coronavirus pandemic, “mental anxiety”, loss of patience and forced to stay in a confined space during a lockdown that does not allow people to leave at least temporarily from cities.

The highest number of cases involving fatal domestic violence during the pandemic was recorded in St. Petersburg, the Perm Territory, Omsk, Kurgan and Moscow regions. The researchers note that during the lockdown in the country, “the percentage of partner violence has increased catastrophically” - crimes in couples whose relationship is not officially registered.

The researchers noted that in order to correct the situation in Russia, an urgent adjustment of the legislation on domestic violence is needed, which should provide effective protection to victims of criminal attacks in the family.

Of particular concern to human rights activists was the response of the Federation Council that there is no need to take emergency measures, since all families, on the contrary, “will rally during self-isolation.”

Human rights activists believe that Russia also needs a law on psychological assistance and amendments to the document on the prevention of domestic violence.

In April of this year, it became known that the Constitutional Court was considering a complaint from a resident of Orenburg, Lyudmila Sakova , who had been beaten by her brother for several years. He recognized that the criminal article 116.1 on repeated beatings was not in accordance with the Constitution and ruled that legislators should make the necessary changes to the article.

In November last year, in Kuzbass, a jury unanimously delivered a verdict of not guilty to a local resident, Svetlana Prokopova, who was accused of allegedly inflicting mortal wounds on her husband who brutally beat her while defending herself.

In June of this year, at a meeting on June 14, State Duma deputies adopted in the third reading a law on the introduction of criminal liability for beatings committed for the third or more time by a person who has a criminal record for similar violations .