Prostitution in Russia

In the Russian Federation, prostitution is prohibited; moreover, not the prostitutes themselves are subject to the most severe punishment, but other people employed in this industry, since it is believed that the degree of public danger of their actions is higher.

It is provided for liability for the following:

• “ Involvement in prostitution ” “... or forced to continue prostitution ” - art. 240 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation : up to 3-8 years of imprisonment ^[2] .
• "The organization of prostitution " - "the organization of prostitution, the maintenance of dens and the systematic provision of premises for prostitution " - Art. 241 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: up to 5-10 years of drugs ^[2] .
• “ Obtaining the sexual services of a minor ” “... at the age of 16 to 18 years old by a person who has reached the age of eighteen years old ” (punished a person who has reached the age of 18 years old and received sex for a reward or promise to a minor or third person ”(“ sex, sodomy, lesbianism or other sexual acts ”) with a person aged between 16 and 18 years old - Article 240.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (introduced by Federal Law of Sat 28.12.2013 N 380-FZ and began to operate from Thu 09/01/2014): up to 4 years in prison ^[3] .
• " Prostitution " - Art. 6.11 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ^[4] - under this article, persons directly involved in prostitution are punished with a fine in the amount of one thousand five hundred to two thousand rubles. At the same time, the CAO RF legally does not disclose the concept of “prostitution”, however, the accepted meaning is “the systematic provision of sexual services for a fee.”
• “ Getting income from engaging in prostitution, if this income is related to the prostitution of another person ,” Art. 6.12 of the Code on Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ^[5] - providing protection for prostitutes, searching for clients or a place to meet, all sorts of other actions, if it is done for free, except as provided for in Articles 240 and 241 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Regional laws

In a number of regions of Russia, independent acts relating to prostitution have been adopted:

• On December 6, 2011, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg prohibited on the streets, intersections and carriageways of the city ’s roads “the spread of advertising and other informational print products of an erotic nature, including the hidden offer of sexual services ” ^[6] . On February 14, 2013, the ban was extended to “ other public places ” ^[7] .
• On June 14, 2012, the Belgorod Regional Duma prohibited the receipt of sexual services on a reimbursable basis from persons engaged in prostitution, under the threat of a fine of 5,000 rubles. The law was signed by the governor on June 20 and entered into force on July 2. On February 11, 2013, the application of this law was monitored: it turned out that by that time 7 men had been arrested on it - one in Belgorod and 6 in Stary Oskol ^[8] . Subsequently, the ban was lifted by the law of the Belgorod Region No. 293 of July 24, 2014, which applies to legal relations arising from December 11, 2013. Thus, this ban legally existed for only 1.5 years.

Despite these prohibitions, prostitution is widespread in Russia and is conducted almost openly ^[9] . There are calls for its legalization ^[10] .

According to the Interior Ministry, there are about 1 million prostitutes in Russia (2012) ^[11] . 12 years ago their number was estimated at 267–400 thousand. ^[12]

In the 1990s, there was a significant increase in the level of prostitution in Russia. At the same time, child and male prostitution appeared in Russia, which was practically unknown before ^[13] .

Despite the official prohibition of prostitution on the territory of the Russian Federation (Art. 6.11 and 6.12 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation; Art. 240 and 241 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), prostitution in Russia is de facto well developed and its activities are actively advertised in print media under the guise of "And on the Internet. Many sites of sex services and erotic video chat have domains (top level) of other countries, openly providing services to prostitutes for everyone.

Russian Empire

In 1649, Alexei Mikhailovich banned pimping ^[14] . The ban was repeated by Peter II on September 12, 1728 ^[15] and by Anna Ivanovna in 1736.

Prostitution itself was criminalized in Russia on May 20, 1763; the Senate decree threatened "indecent" women with a reference to Siberia . The statutes of the dean of 1782 punished both prostitution and pandering by imprisonment in a strait-house for a period of six months ^[16] .

Legalization (1843–1917)

In the Russian Empire, prostitution was originally banned. On the initiative of Emperor Nicholas I , in view of the futility of punishment and other punitive measures, as well as an increase in the growth of venereal diseases, a special decree of the emperor allowed prostitution in Russia to be legalized, with strict medical and police control established ^[17] .

On October 6, 1843, the Medical-Police Committee was established, which put prostitutes on state records. On the basis of the special rules for public women and brothel owners approved by the Ministry of the Interior on May 19, 1844, represented by Count L. A Perovsky , the committee confiscated a previously issued passport and issued a “ Substitute ticket ” (which received the unofficial name “ Yellow ticket ”). , on the last page ^{[ specify ]} which published the rules for the maintenance of houses of tolerance, age limits for prostitutes - only 16 years old, for brothel owners - only 35 to 60 years old, as well as the rules for brothels - no closer than 300 meters from churches, colleges, schools. Further pages were followed by the enclosed "Medical ticket", containing the doctor's notes, as well as notes on the payment of state duty . Already in 1901, 2,400 brothels were registered in Russia, employing over 15,000 women ^{[16] [17] [18]} .

On April 6, 1853, the Council of State ruled that prostitutes who obey the rules of medical and police supervision are exempt from liability for indecency, provided for in article 1287 of the Penal Code. This decision was not published, but it was brought to the notice of the governors, who by their authority freed the women involved under this article from punishment ^[16] . The final legalization of prostitution was enshrined in Article 44 of the Penal Code, imposed by the magistrates of 1864, which excluded the punishment for prostitution subject to medical and police control ^[16] .

On October 8, 1903, Deputy Minister of the Interior N. A. Zinoviev raised the minimum age for prostitution from 16 to 21 ^[16] .

USSR

In 1917, after the October Revolution , prostitution was banned by the Soviet authorities.

Until 1987, there was no separate article in the legislation of the USSR punishing prostitution, and prostitutes were detained under other articles.
Prostitution in Russia was prohibited by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of May 29, 1987 ^[19] under penalty of a fine of up to 100 rubles (Soviet ^[20] ), and in case of a repeated offense during the year - up to 200 rubles. The rest of the Soviet republics of the USSR soon followed the example of the RSFSR .

Russian Federation

On July 14, 1992, after the start of inflation, the Law of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for recalculating the size of fines” was issued, prescribing in cases for which the RSFSR Code on Administrative Offenses set a fine of 100 rubles., Instead, levy a fine of 1 (one) minimum wage ^[21] .

The fines indicated by the Supreme Council remained in force until July 1, 2002, when the new Administrative Code of the Russian Federation imposed a fine in prostitution in the amount of 15 to 20 minimum wages, while the minimum wage for administrative offenses (since July 1, 2000, it did not coincide with the size of the minimum wage in labor law) was 100 rubles ^[22] .

According to Novaya Gazeta , at the beginning of 2015 only in Moscow about 30 thousand people are professionally engaged in prostitution and there are one and a half thousand intimate establishments, usually disguised as saunas and erotic massage salons. Points of work confused cover for corrupt police. A night with a girl, as a newspaper correspondent found out, costs between 9 and 15 thousand rubles ^[23] .

Western researchers note that the collapse of the Soviet Union gave millions of Soviet women access to the job market of the global sex industry . At the same time, it is emphasized that at that time the majority of ex-Soviet women left the borders of their republics without exact binding to a specific republic of the former USSR, where they were from, and, as a result, in research works they all appear as “Russians” or “East -European. With regard to specific quantities, according to existing estimates in the European Union in the field of prostitution employs about half a million representatives of Central and Eastern Europe. For example, according to data for 1998, 87.5% of women imported to Germany were from Eastern Europe, among which 17% were from Poland (see prostitution in Poland ), 14% from Ukraine (see prostitution in Ukraine ), 12% from the Czech Republic and 8% from the Russian Federation ^[24] . Prostitutes from Russia, as well as from other countries-republics of the former USSR, exist in many other countries (in the USA, Canada, Spain, Syria, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Germany ^[25] , Estonia ^[26] , Finland ^{[ 27]} , Thailand ^[28] , Turkey ^[29] and even in Pakistan ^[30] ). The press sometimes get information about the murder of Russian prostitutes by clients in the UAE ^[31] .

Prostitutes from the republics of the former USSR in countries such as Israel and Turkey are called “natashi” ^[32] . Prostitutes originally from the former Soviet republics exist in Syria , where they wear miniskirts , shiny tops and high hairstyles ^[33] .

Many girls from Russia (in many cases from the provinces, from the villages), as well as from other countries of the former USSR and not only, become victims of human traffickers and fall into sexual slavery and are forced to engage in prostitution .

A fuller interpretation of the term “prostitution” is cited by the Large Legal Dictionary edited by Professor A. Ya. Sukharev :

Entry for a fee in casual, extra-marital sex, not based on personal sympathy, attraction. A characteristic feature of P. is the systematic nature of sexual relations with various partners (clients) and a preliminary agreement on payment (although the price may not be announced in advance). P. is usually the main or even the only source of income of the person involved in it. P. can be done by women and men.

For example, paragraph 2 (b) of Article 2 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography of May 25, 2000 defines child prostitution as the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form refunds. In practice, prostitution can be understood as not relying on sexual intercourse with various partners for personal payment and not based on personal sympathy and attraction ^[34] .

Public Supporters

On May 30, 2002, at the All-Russian Conference of Venereologists and Dermatologists, the main venerealologist of Russia, director of the FSBE “State Scientific Center for Dermatovenerology and Cosmetology” Anna Kurbatova stated the need to legalize prostitution in Russia. According to the chief venereologist of Russia, this can stop the growth of the spread of AIDS , HIV and the development of other venereal diseases. According to a survey conducted by the State Scientific Center for Dermatology and Venereology and Cosmetology, 84% of doctors spoke of the need to legalize prostitution ^[35] . According to her, every third woman involved in prostitution is sick with syphilis , besides that, the chief doctor believes that prostitutes should be protected by federal law . The director of the Ural Research Institute of Dermatovenerology and Immunopathology, Nikolai Kungurov, added that two-thirds of prostitutes are engaged in prostitution in exchange for drugs and her coming out of the shadows will also help control drug crime ^[36] .

On February 9, 2004, at the initiative of State Duma deputy of the 4th convocation of the Union of Right Forces faction Andrei Wolf , the State Duma introduced a draft law on the legalization of prostitution, the author of the draft law proposed to qualify prostitution and other paid sexual services as a type of economic activity state registration "- but the bill was rejected the next day in the first reading ^[37] .

In September 2006, the mayor of Vorkuta, Igor Shpektor, publicly announced his readiness to legalize prostitution in his city ^[38] . But the initiative did not receive the approval of the higher authorities, as it violates the existing criminal code .

On May 11, 2007, the leadership of the LDPR party also launched an initiative to legalize prostitution in Russia. According to the leader of the LDPR Party, the Vice-Chairman (Vice-Speaker) of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky, everything that cannot be prohibited should be introduced into the legal field; According to him, this shadow business causes great harm to the economy, morality and morality of society. Its legalization will ensure the security of this type of services and will have a positive economic effect ^[39] , but this initiative was not approved by the majority in the Russian parliament.

In 2012, the United Nations World Commission on HIV , created on the initiative of UN Secretary-General Ban Gimun , in its report called on all countries of the world to abandon legislative prosecution of prostitution (which the report refers to as “sexual work by consent” - “consensual sex work”). The Commission believes that this will help stop the HIV epidemic ^[40] .

On November 26, 2012, the leader of the Right Cause party, Andrei Dunaev, again raised the issue of legalizing prostitution in Russia. He stated that the party intends to conduct sociological research on this issue and come up with an initiative to parliamentary parties and the possible collection of signatures for legalization. He believes that this will allow to officially legalize what already exists, get out of the patronage of criminal and near-criminal structures, as well as unscrupulous law enforcement officers, pay taxes to the state budget, undergo regular medical examinations and qualify for pension contributions. Andrei Dunaev also added that in the current situation, female workers in the sex industry have no rights in front of their employers, equating them to sexual slavery - but no action was taken by the party . Currently, prostitution is officially legalized in the following countries: the Netherlands , Switzerland , Italy , Hungary , New Zealand , Australia , Germany ^{[41] [42] [43]} .

5 декабря 2012 года при поддержке газеты Аргументы и факты и Русской службы Би-би-си состоялся форум под названием «Легализуем проституцию — соберем налоги», организованный по инициативе фонда «Полиция нравов», который предложил проект ФЗ о «Государственном регулировании и контроле над оказанием сексуальных услуг». По словам председателя неофициального профсоюза секс-индустрии «Серебряная роза» Оксаны Ярцевой, из-за запрета проституткам приходится платить полицейским , депутат Государственной думы фракции Единая Россия Иосиф Кобзон поддержал инициативу, но считает, что данный законопроект вряд ли получится провести через все парламентские инстанции, также идею поддержал журналист НТВ , автор документальных фильмов о проституции Вадим Муравьёв и московский адвокат Александр Лунёв ^[44] .

На выборах 2013 года партия « Гражданская сила » в Думу Тольятти выдвинула кандидатами в депутаты Думы Тольятти танцовщицу GO-GO и известную в узких кругах тусовщицу ночных клубов , что вызвало повышенный скандальный интерес к партии и её двум кандидатам. Заместитель председателя Самарского регионального отделения сообщил, что проституция в России должна быть легализована ^{[45] [46] [47]} . Из-за нарушения порядка подачи документов избирком отказал в регистрации кандидатам и самой партии, суд оставил это решение без изменений ^[48] . Несмотря на отказ в регистрации двух скандальных кандидатов, третью танцовщицу, выдвинутую в составе партийного списка от партии « Правое дело », избирком зарегистрировал ^[49] , впоследствии девушка не смогла пройти в городской парламент. 14 июля 2014 года партия выдвинула троих танцовщиц GO-GO кандидатами в депутаты в муниципальном совете Сенного округа Санкт-Петербурга ^{[50] [51]} , однако им также избирательная комиссия отказала в регистрации.

В декабре 2018 г. общественное автономное объединение «Независимый Союз защиты гражданских инициатив» создал петицию на базе международной онлайн платформы change.org , которая конфигурирует инструменты пользовательского интерфейса для продвижения гражданских инициатив, декларирующих возможные решения социально значимых проблем. К этому же времени настоящее общественное объединение социально активных граждан опубликовала в глобальной сети «Интернет» сайт для привлечения внимания широкой общественности к проблеме института проституции в России, стимулирования граждан к росту вовлеченности в процесс сбора простых неквалифицированных электронных подписей в поддержку петиции.

Судебная попытка к легализации

В 2014 году юрист Третьяков Д. Н. из Тольятти, который ранее через Суды пытался оспорить роспуск СССР , руководствуясь ст. 37 Конституции (Основного Закона) Российской Федерации» , потребовал через Суд легализовать проституцию ^[52] .

20 июня мировой суд Тольятти вынес определение об отказе в рассмотрении иска, указав, что данное дело подсудно Арбитражному суду ^{[53] [54] [55]} .

4 сентября 2014 года состоялось первое в судебной истории рассмотрение иска о легализации проституции в Арбитражном суде , что вызвало широкий общественный резонанс, разделив противников и сторонников. На первом заседании Суд определил, что дело не подлежит рассмотрению в арбитражном суде, прекратив производство ^{[56] [57] [58] [59]} .

27 октября 2014 года одиннадцатый апелляционный суд оставил определение арбитражного суда без изменений. ^[60]

5 июня 2015 году Верховный Суд России отказал в принятии иска «О признании неконституционным бездействия подведомственных государственных органов Правительству России на организацию и оказание интимных услуг населению согласно 37 ст. Конституции (Основного Закона) РФ — ответчиком в деле выступало само Правительство РФ. ^[61]

Публичные противники

17 февраля 2011 года депутат ГД РФ 5-го и 6-го созыва от Приморского края Валерий Селезнев ^[62] и экс-депутат ГД Геннадий Гудков , лишенный депутатского мандата, в сентябре 2012 года высказались против легализации ^[63] .

По результатам голосования по петиции РОИ в 2017 году, сторонники ужесточения наказания за проституцию (в т.ч. возвращения уголовного наказания) составляют примерно 30% от общего числа проголосовавших ^[64] .

По данным соцопросов, проводившихся Левада-центром ранее, в 1997 году ужесточение наказания поддерживали — 32 %, а в 2015 году — 56 % россиян. Легализацию проституции в 1997 году поддерживали 47 % граждан России, в 2010 — 25 %, в 2015 — 20 % ^[65] .

Российская Федерация входит в число государств ^[66] , принявших Конвенцию о борьбе с торговлей людьми и эксплуатацией проституции третьими лицами, согласно которой запрещается любая проституция, в том числе добровольная ^{[67] [68]} .