Putin signs bill banning adoptions to Americans
Source: Agencies |
December 29, 2012, Saturday
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RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, part of a harsh response to a US law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators.
The law also calls for closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political.
It was not clear when the law would take effect, but presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying "practically, adoption stops on January 1."
Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for US adoption would remain in Russia.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The US is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children - more than 60,000 have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures. Putin, along with signing the adoption ban, yesterday issued an order for the government to develop a program to provide more support for adopted children.
The law is in response to a measure signed into law by US President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.
That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a US$230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten and accused the Kremlin of failing to prosecute those responsible; a prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court yesterday.
Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.
Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans.
The law also calls for closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political.
It was not clear when the law would take effect, but presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying "practically, adoption stops on January 1."
Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for US adoption would remain in Russia.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The US is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children - more than 60,000 have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures. Putin, along with signing the adoption ban, yesterday issued an order for the government to develop a program to provide more support for adopted children.
The law is in response to a measure signed into law by US President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.
That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a US$230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten and accused the Kremlin of failing to prosecute those responsible; a prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court yesterday.
Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.
Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans.
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