“Keep quiet and make borscht” – 2024-03-09 02:06:09

Roses are a classic Women’s Day gift, but the representative of the City Duma thinks that the purses should be given to the war machine. EPA / AOP

In honor of International Women’s Day, which was celebrated on Friday, the vice-chairman of the Family Committee of the Russian State Duma Vitali Milonov shared his own views on what makes women happy.

Milonov, who initiated the law against the spread of “gay propaganda”, spoke in a radio station interview on Women’s Day in a significantly more conservative tone than in the Western world.

– I really believe that the best gift for a woman is a new pregnancy, Milonov says to the Govorit Moskva radio station.

Milonov also warns couples not to drink too much during their romantic evening to avoid “drunk conception”. Men, on the other hand, should “be men” – or give flowers to seduce their spouses, if the first mentioned is not possible.

Milonov is not alone in his views in Russia. Vladimir Putin stated in his Women’s Day speech that a woman’s most important task is motherhood and “tirelessly caring for children”. Putin has already declared 2024 the “year of the family” and promised to implement new measures to turn the low birth rate into an upward one.

Editor-in-chief of the Russian state news channel RT Margarita Simonjan decided to use women’s day to talk about men’s struggles, and how they actually have it harder than women.

– When you are a man, everyone expects you to be responsible, Simonjan said according to the Moscow Times and listed how men are expected to take responsibility at home and at work and be willing to defend the country.

– When you are a woman, no one expects that from you. Just shut up and make borscht.

Bouquets are popular gifts on Women’s Day. Representative of the Voronezh City Duma Alexander Zhukov however, urges men to use their money instead of bouquets of flowers for donations to the war machine.

– We give flowers to women after our victory, Zhukov said.

Chairman of the Federal Council Valentina Matviyenko in her speech at the women’s forum, thanked Putin for opening up “all opportunities” for women in Russia. However, Putin has not been able to open up all the possibilities, because Russian law prohibits women from working in dozens of professions citing health reasons.

In 2017, Russia decriminalized cases of domestic violence that result in “minor harm” such as bruises or superficial wounds.