The President of Russia Vladimir Putin has signed a law that decriminalized some forms of domestic violence reported in accordance with the state news Agency TASS.

The punishment shall entail a fine in the amount of 30 thousand rubles ($ 507), arrest for up to 15 days, or compulsory community service to 120 hours. In the case of repeated attacks, the defendant faces a penalty of up to 40 thousand rubles ($ 676), compulsory public works for up to 6 months, or arrest for a term up to 3 months.

More than 85% of lawmakers in Russia have approved a bill last month - the law is seen as part of Putin's drive in an attempt to appease the conservative "traditional family values."
The authors of the bill, including conservative Senator Mizulina, believe that the law will simply be reformed in order to offset the penalties for other minor attacks.

Mizulina, a staunch supporter of traditional values, was also the author of the controversial law on "gay propaganda" in Russia that bans "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations." A member of the Duma of the Russian Federation Vitaly Milonov, who supported the law, said, "I don't think we should violate the rights of the family, and sometimes a man and a woman, husband and wife, there is a conflict. Sometimes in this conflict they use, I don't know, pan, raw spaghetti, and so on."

"Frankly, what we call domestic violence is not domestic violence - it's kind of a new picture of family relations in the media." Rights watch urged the Parliament to reject the law, calling it "dangerous and incompatible with the international obligations of Russia in the field of human rights." 40% of violent crimes in Russia are committed within the family, 36, Tiss women beat their husbands daily, and 12 thousand women die annually as a result of domestic abuse - one woman for every 44 minutes.
sections: Politics, Accidents