Paedophiles should be chemically castrated, says Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "Punishments should be as harsh as possible. The state should use all means possible, and a liberal approach here is totally unacceptable," he said this week.

Neighbouring Poland introduced chemical castration for some sex offenders in 2010. 

In 2009 a bill legalising chemical castration failed in the Russian Duma. The ombudmsn for children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, darkly suggested that a paedophile lobby in the Duma itself had stopped the bill. "I wonder if we don't have a paedophile lobby that simply finances this and works against the adoption of this law. I think I am not very far from the truth," Astakhov said. ~ Ria Novosti, May 10