russian women domestic abuse

This is a transcript from PM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 5:10pm on Radio National and 6:10pm on ABC Local Radio. You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO


Reporter: Scott Bevan
LISA MILLAR: Home is meant to be a refuge, but for tens of thousands of Russian families it's the centre of violence, even death.

Experts estimate that on average, a woman dies every hour in Russia, due to domestic violence.

While a recent study has shown awareness of the issue is high, those working to prevent family violence say there has to be a major change in Russia's attitudes and laws to confront the problem.

Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan reports.

(Sounds of Valeria singing)

SCOTT BEVAN: Valeria is one of Russia's biggest pop stars.

(Valeria singing)

SCOTT BEVAN: When she sings of a relationship descending into violence, it's more than words and music to her; it's life experience.

VALERIA (singing): "You make me think that it's all my fault".

VALERIA: I've gone through hell. My ex-husband was a real tyrant…

SCOTT BEVAN: Valeria says she and her three children suffered physical and emotional abuse and she felt as though there was no escape.

VALERIA: I had no money. I had no, any rights. We live in the countryside where there was no police station nearby.

Even if it had, it wouldn't have helped. Police don't interfere in family matters.

SCOTT BEVAN: After ten years of marriage, Valeria says she and her children finally got out.

Across Russia the outcome in households that suffer domestic violence is frequently far more tragic, according to government figures.

MARINA PISKLAKOVA 14,000 women are killed as a result of domestic violence in Russia annually.

It's actually happening every hour. Like, while we are talking, a woman will die.

SCOTT BEVAN: Marina Pisklakova is the founder of the National Centre for the Prevention of Violence. She says about 60,000 women are registered by the police annually as being victims of domestic violence. But that figure represents only a fraction of the real number.

To be registered the victim has usually suffered significant physical injuries and Marina Pisklakova says that indicates a sever shortcoming in stopping domestic violence. She says there's not even a clear definition of domestic violence in Russian law.

MARINA PISKLAKOVA: We don't have a good prevention system. I other words our legislation doesn't allow intervention until it's almost too late.

SCOTT BEVAN: To even find somewhere to escape to before it's too late, can also be difficult.

(Sound of gate opening)

SCOTT BEVAN: Svetlana Petrova is showing me through a crisis centre for women that she helps run in Himke (phonetic), a city just outside Moscow.

The simple brick building wears a plaque that reads "salvation".

SCOT BEVAN: How busy does your centre get?

SVETLANA PETROVA(translated): It gets quite busy but we like that because it means work is being done and we're helping people.

SCOTT BEVAN: Each day up to 50 people seek help here and the centre provides emergency housing for seven. Although as Svetlana Petrova explains sometimes such is the demand, extra beds have to be found.

SVETLANA PETROVA(translated): Before there were no centres like this, so women just went to the police, health care centres or relatives and friends. I don't think they had anywhere to go to get qualified professional help.

SCOTT BEVAN: According to Marina Pisklakova from the National Centre for the Prevention of Violence, many still have nowhere to go.

She says there are just 22 shelters across Russia with none in Moscow itself.

MARINA PISKLAKOVA: By the European Council standards, Russia needs to have about 15,000 shelters. So we are lacking a lot.

SCOTT BEVAN: Yet experts say the problem is more than one of facilities, it's also of attitude.

The United Nations Population Fund has recently done a study that showed 90 per cent of women think violence is a problem in Russian Families. But Karl Kulessa from the fund says awareness is one thing, doing something about it is another.

KARL KULESSA: The issue of domestic violence is seen as a private matter mostly in Russia. So I think maybe there's a feeling among women that the services are not out there and so traditionally they do not go outside the family to resolve the issues of violence

SCOTT BEVAN: Marina Pisklakova believes attitudes are changing.

She says police, for instance, take the issue more seriously and that it's just been announced special units to deal with domestic violence are to be established.

What's desperately needed, Marina Pisklakova says, are better laws to deal with domestic violence, and to try and prevent it happening in the first place.

MARINA PISKLAKOVA: It took us a long time to make this problem visible.

Now I think it's getting better but yes, while we are speaking and while we are trying to push for the law, for some women it will be still too late.

LISA MILLAR: Marina Pisklakova, the founder of Russia's National Centre for the Prevention of Violence.

And that report from Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan.