Top 10 Everyday Things That Are Banned in Russia

Although yoga has become a popular source of stretching and exercise in the West, it originated as a spiritual practice in the East. Yoga began as a Hindu and later Buddhist meditative practice in ancient India. It’s those origins that bothered Russian officials in the city of Nizhnevartovsk in 2015. They sent letters to yoga studios throughout the city to cease-and-desist, citing the practices as a way of spreading new religious cults. The ban was ironic: Russia co-sponsored ‘International Yoga Day” at the U.N., and its Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is known to practice Yoga himself.

People in Russia and its neighbors Kazakhstan and Belarus have spent almost a decade lingerie-free. In July of 2014, all three countries enacted a set of ‘safety’ regulations for underwear. All clothing touching the skin, meaning underwear, must be at least 6% cotton for one’s health. Since most lacy lingerie tends to consist of less than 4% cotton, it’s effectively banned in Russia. While the countries claimed that the ban was not motivated by morality, some people didn’t buy it. The Russian parliament at the time was 85% male, and utterly conservative. One party also attempted to follow up with another ban on high heels.

For decades, religious right-wing forces around the world have fought sex education for minors. In 2010, those forces won the battle in Russia. The Russian Duma passed a law ostensibly meant to “protect children from information harmful to their health and development.” In reality, the law effectively ended sex education in the entire country. The results? Between 2017 and 2021, the number of Russians reporting a positive HIV status almost doubled from 800,000 to 1.5 million. There is widespread ignorance as to how the disease is transmitted, with a stigma reminiscent of the 1980s in the United States.

While speech has never exactly been free in Russia, the internet has led the government to enact a series of crackdowns. Social media led to an explosion of memes that allegedly infuriated president Putin, especially those critical of the government. In 2015, the country’s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, made millions of memes illegal overnight. Any meme that portrays a public figure in a derogatory or satirical light was banned. Similarly, Russia also keeps a tight leash on popular and independent blogs. If a blog gets more than 3,000 views per day, you fall under government censorship regulations and must register with the state.

In 2014, Russia was dealing with a traffic fatality crisis: Russian roads were one of the deadliest places to drive on earth. The Duma passed a law meant to combat traffic fatalities by regulating the distribution of driver’s licenses. They listed a number of physical and mental conditions that would prevent a Russian individual from driving. One group added to the Russian ‘no-drive list’ were trans people. In July of 2023, the Russian Duma decided to follow their anti-LGBTQIA+ laws to their natural conclusion: they began the process to ban gender affirmation altogether.

George Orwell once wrote, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” By Orwell’s definition, liberty is sorely lacking in Putin’s Russia. In an attempt to stifle free speech, the Russian government targeted language in television, theater, and film in 2014. Swearing is now illegal and subject to fines both for individuals and organizations. Books that contain swears must have a warning label. The law is a throwback to Soviet era laws meant to prevent Russians from following the linguistic example of the ‘decadent west.’

Authoritarian countries like Russia and China have adapted to the internet age by tightening their iron grips on the public. They have enacted strict rules about how websites and social media companies operate in their countries. In 2016, Roskomnadzor announced that the professional networking site LinkedIn would no longer be allowed to operate in Russia at all. Their rationale is all about personal information. LinkedIn stores user data on servers that are not housed in Russia. For Roskomnadzor, this is a big no-no. They want user data to be stored within Russia, presumably for easy government access.

Russian leaders have denounced the decadence of western values since the early days of the Soviet Union. In the modern context, Putin and the Kremlin have used the LGBTQIA+ community as a scapegoat and foil for what they consider to be their moral superiority. Though the Russian government has been openly hostile to LGBTQIA+ people for years, they have recently stepped up their laws. The Russian Parliament passed an anti- “Gay Propaganda” law in 2013, and strengthened it in 2022. Portraying non-cis-gendered, heterosexual lifestyles in anything other than a negative light is now illegal, making gay pride a crime. Pride events have been violently broken up by Russian police, leaving LGBTQIA+ Russians with fewer rights than their neighbors.

Despite being a country notorious for doping in sports, Russia has zero tolerance for drugs. Their anti-drug laws are some of the strictest in the world. People with substance use disorders face long prison sentences as well as mandatory treatment. The recent harsh sentence doled out to American WNBA star Brittney Griner illustrated to the west just how harsh Russia’s laws can be. But, in addition to cracking down on illegal narcotics like cocaine and heroin, some common western prescription drugs are also prohibited in Russia. In the west, conditions like ADHD are often treated with medication like Adderall. Unfortunately, Adderall contains amphetamines, which are not allowed at all in Russia.

Eight years before their full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia took Crimea. America and its European allies responded with a host of sanctions, many of which have never been lifted. Russia retaliated with sanctions of their own, denying a market to a number of western goods and services. Western ex-pats and Russian citizens have spent the better part of a decade without access to American or European foodstuffs. For example, steaks from the U.S. and Australia are not allowed in Russia. Neither are cheeses or wines from France. As a result, food prices - especially after the 2022 round of sanctions on Russia - exploded.