Did Milonov propose to introduce forced insemination for Russian women over 24 years of age?

In July 2023, news about another initiative of the notorious Russian legislator spread across social networks. We checked whether Vitaly Milonov said this.

The message about the proposal, which the deputy allegedly made, spread around the Russian-language segment of the Internet on July 18–20. The initiative was mentioned in her column by the columnist “Novaya Gazeta» Natalya Chernova. The news went around the main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, "Classmates", "VKontakte") and appeared on blogging platforms ("Zen"). A considerable number of users learned about it from Telegram - for example, through the channels "Cotton swamp"(388,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Bayraktar"(65,000), "EP" (63,000) and "Chronicles of insanity"(34,000).

State Duma deputy from the United Russia party Vitaly Milonov has been sitting in the lower house of the Russian parliament since 2016, but became known long before that thanks to his legislative initiatives, which caused great controversy in society. Back in 2011, being a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, he spoke the author of the city law banning LGBT+ propaganda (in two years a similar federal act will appear). He also proposed, for example, to ban in the Russian Federation magicians, sorcerers And barbie doll, equalize rights embryo and human and make it mandatory driver license for cyclists. In the current convocation of the State Duma, Milonov takes the post of deputy chairman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs, and a considerable part of his activities is devoted to this topic. So, in May 2023 he spoke with the initiative to exclude abortion without medical or social indications from the list of compulsory health insurance services. It would seem that the news about forced insemination in the context of Milonov’s previous initiatives exists quite organically.

However, “Verified” did not find any traces of the Russian parliamentarian’s statement in credible sources (with the exception of “Novaya Gazeta", which links to an anonymous tweet). Such a loud statement could not go unnoticed by federal channels and major national and regional media. Moreover, the Internet does not know any statements by the deputy on the topic of insemination in all the years of his activity. According to the portal Blitz+, in an exclusive conversation, Milonov called the circulated news “fake, but funny.”

However, as often happens, the plot of the sensational news did not come out of nowhere. In 2012, when Milonov was already known as a supporter of ultra-conservative views and the creator of radical legislative initiatives, many media flew around a proposal attributed to the deputy to send Russian women to the army if they have not given birth to a child before the age of 23. After it turned outthat the legislator did not say this, and Milonov, in particular, accused politician Alexei Navalny of slander, who also believed in the authenticity of the quote and disseminated it.

On July 17, 2023, the day before the statement about forced insemination was disseminated, a new news story arose - following a meeting of the presidium of the United Russia faction, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko, touching on the topic of control over medical abortions, which is close to Milonov, said:

“This is a vicious practice of studying, career, and creating some kind of material well-being first. Unfortunately, when it comes to realizing her reproductive goals, childbearing, a woman already loses her health by this age, and difficulties arise with childbearing, including infertility and much more. Therefore, explaining that young age is a priority for childbearing, forming a family and shaping a life path, career, and so on is a more correct position.”

Murashko stated that “the vicious practice of delayed motherhood needs to be broken” for several days previously, however, the quote really spread widely on July 18 - more than 14 million views on Telegram alone, according to TGStat. And already at 12:57 p.m. Moscow time, Twitter user under the nickname @SillyWalksMstry posted message that Milonov allegedly proposes to introduce forced insemination for unmarried women over 24 years of age. This tweet received more than 500 retweets and, according to Verified, was the first publication to mention the said statement. According to the profile description of @SillyWalksMstry, the blogger lives in Germany. The Twitter user did not respond to “Verified” messages asking for comment from which source he took the information about the initiative of the Russian deputy. It should be noted that users have been contacting Milonov with humorous advice to draw up lists for forced insemination for several days previously.

Thus, the phrase about forced insemination was attributed to Milonov by a Twitter user. The deputy himself, after his “quote” began to spread across the Internet, supported opinion Murashko, however, as stated above, did not say anything on the topic of insemination.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fake

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