Russian MPs plan to ban the adoption of Russian children by US citizens

A pupil of the orphanage No. 3 in the Beshpagir village, Stavropol Territory. (RIA Novosti / Alexander Vikulov)

Russian MPs plan to ban the adoption of Russian children by US citizens as part of a bill being prepared in response to the Magnitsky Act.

United Russia, the majority party in Parliament is ready to support the ban on US adoptions Deputy Duma Speaker Sergey Neverov has told the press. He added that if the ban is approved it must remain in force for as long as US courts pass biased rulings in cases involving adopted Russian children.

The suggested amendments will be made to the bill that has already been named after the Russian two-year old Dima Yakovlev who died after his American adoptiveparents left him in a car for nine hours in hot weather. 

Dima Yakovlev’s death is one of the many cases of torture, rape, manslaughter and murder that adopted Russian children suffered at the hands of their adoptive parents in the United States in recent years. About 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by American couples the biggest number of all the foreign country adoptions. The acute situation forced a moratorium on adoptions in the US, until a new agreement on cross-border adoptions was signed in November 2012.

President Vladimir Putin slammed American authorities last week for their reaction of the incidents with Russian children.

"We are indignant not so much at these tragedies – even though it’s the worst thing that can happen – as at the reaction of the [US] government, a vindicatory reaction. That’s what is bad,” Putin stated. American judicial authorities hardly respond to cases of abuse of Russian children by their American adoptive parents, the Russian President stated. On the contrary, US courts justify such crimes and acquit those guilty of charges against them, the Russian President added.

Russia has instituted a special post of the ombudsman for children’s rights and the man who currently occupies this position, Pavel Astakhov, is a staunch supporter of a total ban onforeign adoptions. The ombudsman reiterated his position this week saying that all Russian children must remain in Russia if it is possible and reminding that the United States was the most frequent place where tragedies had happened.

Astakhov also said that Russia must reply to the demonstratively unfriendly policy of the United States and the ban on adoption could be such a reply.

The Magnitsky Act, approved by the Senate on December 6 and signed by President Obama on December 14, imposes an entry ban and a freeze of US assets on a group of Russian state, law enforcement and court officials who are allegedly complicit in the death of Sergey Magnitsky – an auditor who worked for a British investment fund and who died when he was put in pre-trial custody over a large-scale tax evasionscam. Two prison doctors were tried and sentenced for criminal negligence but a part of the US political and business community, led by Magnitsky’s former employer William Browder, have been pressing for more investigations and punishments. Browder is currently under investigation in Russia in the same tax evasion case.

Russia has repeatedly blasted the Magnitsky Act as an attempt to pressure justice in a sovereign country.

Last week Russia’s Lower House passed the retaliatory Dima Yakovlev bill in the first reading. It proposes denying Russian visas and freezing all financial assets of American citizens involved in the violations of the rights of Russians abroad.

available at https://rt.com/politics/russia-ban-us-adoptions-183/