A member of the Russian State Duma, Maria Butina, has called for the removal of Barbie dolls from the Russian market, arguing that their manufacturer Mattel was promoting an “LGBT agenda” instead of family values.
She added that the recently released Barbie movie serves as “an advertisement for the [US] Democratic Party and its program.”
“What do we see? Gays, trans people, and women who took over the world. There is nothing about the union between a man and a woman, nothing about love,” Butina, a member of the lower house of Russia’s parliament who was convicted by the US of being a foreign agent and imprisoned for 18 months, a claim she denies, told Duma TV on Saturday. She argued that Russia should promote domestic doll brands that better fit society’s values.
Russia originally banned “LGBTQ propaganda” aimed at minors in 2013. The restrictions were tightened further last December, when the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” and transgenderism were outlawed entirely.
In July, the Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that strictly limited access to sexual reassignment surgery and the ability to legally change one’s sex.
The Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was released in theaters on July 21, 2023 and has become a box office sensation. The movie, however, is not shown in Russia due to the current boycott of the country by Warner Bros. in the wake of its military conflict with Ukraine.