MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a bill Wednesday prohibit adoption Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transition is legal.

The Federation Council also approved bills prohibiting the dissemination of materials encourages people not to have children.

The bills, which have already been approved by the lower house, will now be submitted to President Vladimir Putin for signing into law. They follow a series of laws that have suppressed sexual minorities and reinforced long-standing conventional values.

The Speaker of the Lower House, Vyacheslav Volodin, who was one of the authors of the new bill, emphasized that “it is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that children may face adopted in these countries.

The adoption ban would apply to at least 15 countries, most in Europe, but including Australia, Argentina and Canada. The adoption of Russian children by American citizens was banned in 2012.

Other bills approved by lawmakers on Wednesday ban what is described as child-free propaganda and impose fines of up to 5 million rubles (about $50,000). Its supporters argued that public arguments against having children were part of alleged Western efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.

In recent years, Putin and other senior officials have increasingly called for respect for so-called traditional values ​​to counter Western liberalism. As Russia’s population shrinks, Putin has made statements in support of large families and last year urged women to have up to eight children.

Russia banned gender transition medical procedures last year and its Supreme Court declared the LGBTQ+ “movement” extremist.

In 2022, Putin signed a law ban the dissemination of LGBTQ+ information to people of all ages, expanding the ban issued in 2013 on the distribution of this material to minors.