Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 January 31

= January 31 =

Questions about Russia
Is public breastfeeding legal in Russia? Does the Russian Orthodox church, or the Eastern Orthodox church in general, have an official position about it? (Not legal advice -- as a man, I'm highly unlikely to breastfeed anyone, in public or otherwise, and as an American I'm unlikely to travel to Russia any time soon!) 2601:646:8080:FC40:3118:F122:673F:8204 (talk) 13:53, 31 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I found Russia Steps in to Save UN Breastfeeding Resolution Against U.S. Opposition (2018) although the issue here is about encouraging breastfeeding over bottle-feeding baby formula (perhaps the US position is influenced by lobbying from the corporations that make it?). Alansplodge (talk) 12:38, 1 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Right, but they might support breastfeeding in general while at the same time hypocritically opposing it in public on their own soil due to "public decency" reasons -- and/or, their government might be for it while their church might be against it! And that is what I'd like to find out about!  (Just FYI, this has to do with a dispute I had online about this topic -- an Australian friend of mine uploaded a video of herself breastfeeding her 1-year-old son, and a Russian woman (or claiming to be Russian, at any rate) attacked her over the "shameful" nature of the video (along with some nasty comments about the  shape of my Aussie friend's breasts), and I (being the American gentleman that I am) spoke out strongly in favor of my friend and in favor of the right to breastfeed in public, to which the Russkie witch replied along the lines of "We here in Russia are Eastern Orthodox, so we do not tolerate public exposure of a woman's naked body!"  And that's the reason why I want to know whether or not there are indeed any laws in Russia restricting the right to breastfeed in public -- either laws specifically against it, or indecent exposure laws phrased in such a way that public breastfeeding might fall under them -- and/or whether or not the Eastern Orthodox church and/or specifically the Russian Orthodox church considers it a sin!) 2601:646:8080:FC40:0:0:0:3132 (talk) 14:17, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I think that posting a video of a breastfeeding woman on the internet, which is not useful (except if to instruct other women) and very public, is quite different from breastfeeding a child on a railway station, somewhere in a corner of the waiting room, because the child is hungry and the train is delayed. Then, what's legal and what isn't is very fuzzy in Russia. Rules are fuzzy: if the government doesn't like you, everything is illegal; if they like you, everything is allowed. There is no rule of law. The Russian church isn't independent of the government. And of course, there're a lot of Russian trolls on the internet just trolling. I wouldn't assume they're female when they claim so. I wouldn't even assume they're human. PiusImpavidus (talk) 21:17, 1 February 2024 (UTC)