This piece of news seems to fit the Russian government's mood rather well; physically abusing family members only rates a warning on a first offence per new Russian law. I'm reminded of the urban legend that "rule of thumb" meant that you could beat your wife with something thinner than your thumb; small bits of violence are OK in a patriarchal setting if it's the patriarch doing the punishing for the good of the household. The sad part is that there's quite a few folks who agree with that attitude both inside and outside of Russia; abusing women seems to have no place in a godly home.
That seems to fit all too well with Putin's geopolitics. They rough up neighboring countries like Georgia and Ukraine when they start acting uppity, and that's OK, since Moscow is Big Daddy. At home, they jail people who need jailing and kill people who need killin'. "It's our empire, who are you to tell us how to run our own backyard?"
Russia seems to feel like they maintain the right to abuse their neighboring countries, especially the ones that were part of the USSR and pre-Bolshevik Russia back in the day, treating them like estranged kids who've run away from Mother Russia.
The next stop, policy wise, is how to respond to that abuse. Easier said than done, since Russia could well start World War III if it feels cornered.
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