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World

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Putin Says He Will Sign Anti-US Adoptions Bill

December 27th, 2012 12:49 pm Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

More than 60,000 Russian children have been adopted in the United States in the past two decades with Russia being the single biggest source of adopted children for years.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children without parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child.

The bill has angered many Russians who argue that it victimizes Russian orphans who will be robbed of the opportunity to get a family.

Putin on Thursday indicated his intention to endorse the measure.

“I still don’t see any reasons why I should not sign it,” he told a televised meeting, referring to the bill. He went on to say that he “intends” to sign it.

The president said U.S. authorities deny access to adopted Russian children and let Americans suspected of violence toward Russian adoptees go unpunished.

The Russian parliament has approved the bill, which is part of a larger measure by lawmakers retaliating against a recently signed U.S. law calling for sanctions against Russians deemed guilty of human rights violations.



  • Vazir Mukhtar

    How sad that the US and the Russian Federation often conduct diplomatic relations on a tit-for-tat basis. We pass a law to punish certain Russians for alleged violations of human rights; they pass one to punish Americans who wish to adopt Russian orphan children.

    Of course, members of Congress and the President believe the US is in the right: the Magnitsky law is justified because Magnitsky died in prison after having exposed fraud. The law prohibits those believed responsible for Magnitsky’s death from entering the US or using our banking system.

    As to the adoptions, the conditions in which most Russian orphans live are those in the institutions described by Charles Dickens. We can certainly understand the desire to save children from such conditions and the dismal prospects of adult life. Moreover, some Americans have willingly adopted orphans with “special needs.”

    I pose several questions.

    (1) Are there not American (orphan) children in a similar predicament who deserve to be extricated from their current circumstances and offered a chance at a better life?

    (2) What is it about Russian orphans that makes them so attractive as candidates for adoption? What about other foreign children, especially Chinese? Why not adopt Indian orphans, for instance?

    (3) Who is harmed more by the exchange of laws? If it is the Russian orphans, why enact a law that is like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face? Surely there is a better way to punish the US government, which is the responsible party. Ah, but by punishing the would-be parents, the Russians demonstrate how powerless the US government is.

    I wonder if some of the problems the US encounters in dealing with the Russians aren’t the result of their no longer being in the same league with the US militarily and politically (when they had their east European satellites as we did our allies) as they once were. They’ve lost face and we’re perhaps unconsciously, perhaps not, doing little to help them keep what they believe they have left. Since they first came on the scene haven’t the Russians felt put upon and been suspicious of foreigners?