Russian Family Law

Sources of Russian Family Law

Russian family law is codified in the Family Code of the Russian Federation (Semeyniy Kodeks Rossiyskoy Federatsii), adopted by the State Duma on 8 December 1995 and signed into law on 29 December 1995, effective from 1 March 1996. The Family Code replaces the earlier Code on Marriage and the Family of the RSFSR of 1969, which itself succeeded the first Soviet family codes of 1918 and 1926. The Family Code has been substantially amended, most notably by the Federal Law No. 140-FZ of 3 June 2018, which introduced amendments to reaffirm traditional family values, and by subsequent amendments addressing the rights of children and the protection of the family.

Article 38 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 provides the constitutional foundation: motherhood, fatherhood, and the family are under the protection of the state; the care and upbringing of children are the equal right and duty of parents; and able-bodied children over eighteen must care for their disabled parents. The constitutional amendments of 2020, approved by national referendum in July 2020, reinforced the protection of traditional family values, including an express provision in Article 67(1) that marriage is a union of a man and a woman.

Subsidiary sources include the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Grazhdansky Kodeks) on matters of property and contractual relations within the family, the Federal Law on Guardianship and Trusteeship of 2008, the Federal Law on the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child of 1998, and the Federal Law on Acts of Civil Status of 1997. The resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation provide authoritative guidance on the interpretation of the Family Code.

Requirements for Marriage

The requirements for a valid marriage are set out in Articles 10-15 of the Family Code. Marriage requires the voluntary consent of both parties (Article 12) and must be freely given, without duress or coercion. The minimum age of marriage is eighteen years (Article 13), reducible to sixteen in exceptional circumstances with the permission of the local government authority and with the consent of the parents or legal representatives. Some constituent subjects of the Federation have enacted laws permitting marriage below sixteen in exceptional circumstances, such as pregnancy.

Article 14 lists absolute impediments to marriage. Marriage is prohibited between close relatives in the direct ascending and descending line (parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren), between full and half siblings, and between adoptive parents and adopted children. Persons who are already in another registered marriage may not marry. Persons who have been declared legally incapacitated by a court may not marry. The Family Code does not recognise marriages between persons of the same sex; Russia’s constitutional amendments of 2020 expressly define marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and same-sex marriages contracted abroad are not recognised.

The formal requirements for marriage under Article 11 require the personal presence of both parties and the civil registration of the marriage in the ZAGS office (Zapis Aktov Grazhdanskogo Sostoyaniya — the Civil Status Registration Office) of the territory where either party resides. The marriage is registered after one month from the date of application, though the ZAGS office may reduce or extend this period in the presence of valid reasons. The marriage ceremony, if conducted, has no legal significance independent of the civil registration. The Family Code does not recognise religious marriages as valid for legal purposes, consistent with the constitutional principle of the secular state.

Article 15 provides that a medical examination of the parties may be conducted voluntarily but may not be imposed as a condition of marriage. However, if one party conceals the presence of a venereal disease or HIV infection, the other party may petition the court to declare the marriage invalid.

Rights and Duties of Spouses

Article 31 of the Family Code establishes the equality of spouses in the family; each spouse is free to choose their occupation, profession, and place of residence. Article 32 provides that spouses may choose either a common surname or retain their pre-marital surnames.

The property regime is governed by Articles 33-46 of the Family Code. The legal regime of the common property of spouses (Articles 33-39) creates a system of community of acquisitions. Property acquired by the spouses during the marriage is presumed to be their joint common property (sovmestnaya sobstvennost), regardless of which spouse acquired it or in whose name it is registered. This includes income from employment and business activity, pensions, allowances, movable and immovable property acquired from common income, securities, and shares.

Article 36 identifies separate property belonging to each spouse: property owned before marriage; property received during marriage by gift, inheritance, or other gratuitous transactions; and personal effects (with the exception of luxury items). The division of common property upon divorce is governed by Article 39: shares are presumed equal unless the court departs from equality in the interests of minor children or the deserving interests of one spouse.

The Family Code also permits spouses to enter into a marriage contract (brachniy dogovor) under Articles 40-44. The marriage contract, which must be notarised, may regulate the property rights of the spouses during the marriage and upon dissolution. It may not limit the legal capacity of either spouse, regulate personal non-property relations, or limit the right of a disabled or needy spouse to receive maintenance. The marriage contract may be modified or terminated by agreement of the parties or by judicial order.

Dissolution of Marriage

Divorce (rastorzhenie braka) is governed by Articles 16-26 of the Family Code. Two procedures exist. The administrative divorce through the ZAGS office (Article 19) is available where both spouses consent to the dissolution and there are no minor children. The spouses must submit a joint application, and the divorce is registered after one month. The ZAGS office may also dissolve the marriage at the request of one spouse where the other spouse has been declared missing, incapacitated, or sentenced to imprisonment for more than three years.

The judicial divorce through the district court (Articles 21-23) is required where the spouses have minor children, where one spouse does not consent to the divorce, or where consent is given but one spouse avoids the ZAGS procedure. The court must determine that the further common life of the spouses and the preservation of the family are impossible — effectively the standard of irretrievable breakdown. The court may take measures to reconcile the spouses, including adjourning the proceedings for up to three months. In contested cases, the court determines which parent will have custody of minor children, the amount of child support, and the division of common property simultaneously with the divorce.

Children

Articles 54-75 of the Family Code govern the rights of children and the parental rights and obligations. Every child has the right to live and be raised in a family (Article 54), the right to communicate with both parents, grandparents, and other relatives, and the right to express his or her opinion on matters affecting the child’s interests. Article 57 provides that a child aged ten years or older must be heard in any judicial or administrative proceeding and that no decision may be taken contrary to the child’s wishes except where this would harm the child’s interests.

Parental rights are equal for both parents under Article 61, and parental rights and responsibilities may not be exercised contrary to the child’s interests. The most severe sanction is the deprivation of parental rights (lishenie roditelskikh prav) under Articles 69-72, available where parents avoid their duties, abuse their rights, treat children cruelly, are chronic alcoholics or drug addicts, or have committed intentional crimes against the life or health of the child or the other parent. The limitation of parental rights (ogranichenie roditelskikh prav) under Articles 73-76 is a less severe measure available where leaving the child with the parents is dangerous for the child but the grounds for deprivation are absent or where the danger arises from circumstances beyond the parents’ control.

Child support obligations (alimentnye obyazatelstva) are governed by Articles 80-120. Both parents are obliged to support their minor children. In the absence of an agreement, child support is recovered through the courts: one-quarter of the parent’s income for one child, one-third for two children, and one-half for three or more children (Article 81). The court may reduce or increase these shares considering the financial and family circumstances. Article 90 establishes the right of a former spouse to maintenance from the other spouse in cases of incapacity, during pregnancy and for three years after the birth of a common child, and where a spouse is caring for a disabled child.

The guardianship and trusteeship authorities (organy opeki i popechitelstva) play a central role in the protection of children’s rights. They participate in judicial proceedings concerning children, supervise the conditions of children’s upbringing, and represent the interests of children in cases of parental deprivation or limitation of parental rights. The authorities also administer the adoption (usynovlenie) and foster care (priyomnaya semya) systems under Articles 124-155. Adoption is permitted only for minor children and in their best interests; the law gives preference to Russian citizens and to adoption by relatives.