Polygamous marriages are not recognized in the Russian Federation. The Family Code of Russia states that a marriage can only be contracted between a man and a woman, neither of whom is married to someone else.[1] Furthermore, Russia does not recognize polygamous marriages that had been contracted in other countries.[2] Under Russian law, de facto polygamy or multiple cohabitation in and of itself is not a crime.[3]
Due to the imbalance between urban educated women and men in predominantly Mongol-inhabited regions of Russia, men sometimes may have multiple women as wives, one report claims.[4] This sometimes results in households that are openly de facto polygamous.[citation needed]