On June 14, Russia’s State Duma passed a bill banning surgical operations “aimed at changing a person’s sex” and changing one’s gender marker in legal documents in its first reading. During the session, multiple parties in the Duma vocally criticized the document. After Russia’s Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko criticised the law and supported the prohibition of “sex changes” -the term the Duma uses to describe gender transitions- solely based on a patient’s request and advocated stricter requirements for surgery and hormone therapy, but did not advocate a complete ban on gender transitions, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin asked Murashko not to propose any amendments to the law. "We would like the Ministry of Health not to issue any amendments by the second reading, reasoning that it takes care of people. Care should be taken, if you will, by banning all this fornication,” Volodin said.
To be fair, I think they’re talking mainly about the government, and people also felt like the USSR was invincible until suddenly it was gone.
I do also wonder what will happen when Putin dies. He’s made himself an all-powerful dictator, but as I understand it there isn’t any clear path or method of succession laid out. If losing the war or whatever doesn’t take down Russia’s current government, Putin’s death might fracture it and end it in a power struggle.
There is also the fact that so many people fled Russia to avoid conscription, and the dissatisfaction the populace has with the expansion of conscription, and the low morale and disillusionment of troops when they do eventually return. None of that is good for stability, especially when the entire government is built around a single person without a clear succession or replacement system.
I think Russia’s current government can seem stabler than it actually is just because it’s powerful, but it could be a glass cannon.
