Russia could vote on banning US adoptions

RUSSIA: The Russian Parliament could vote on a bill banning adoption of Russian children by Americans, in retaliation to the Magnitsky Act passed by the United States last week, reports said Monday.

The Russian bill, named unofficially the “Dima Yakovlev bill” was approved in the initial reading Friday in a move by Moscow to retaliate against the US law which blacklists Russians involved in the jail death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, banning them from US entry and freezing their US assets.

Dima Yakovlev was an adopted Russian toddler who died of heat stroke in 2008 after his adoptive American father forgot him in a car in summer heat. The father was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.

The Russian bill's official purpose is to blacklist Americans “implicated in violations of rights of Russian citizens.” It was overwhelmingly approved by the Duma lower house of parliament Friday.

However in the second reading this week, lawmakers are including amendments to ban adoptions of Russian children by US citizens, Vedomosti daily said, quoting high-ranking officials in the Duma and President Vladimir Putin's administration.

One of the amendments will be a unilateral breaking by Russia of the US-Russian adoption law, which went into effect as recently as last month, the report said.

Majority party United Russia lawmaker Sergei Neverov, who was the first to publicly propose the “Dima Yakovlev” bill said he “does not exclude” that the Duma will discuss “a total ban on adoption of Russian children by US citizens,” Interfax reported.

Russia has already halted US adoptions before, citing abuse of local children on US soil, leading to a new bilateral agreement which gave Russia more oversight over the process.

The number of children adopted from Russia to the United States has declined in recent years to 962 in 2011 from a peak of 5,862 in 2004, according to official figures.

AFP