MOSCOW — The Russian parliament gave final approval Friday to a proposed ban on the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens, drawing a sharp response from the United States, which urged officials not to play politics with the lives of orphans.
“If it becomes law, the legislation passed today will needlessly remove the path to families for hundreds of Russian children each year,” the U.S. ambassador, Michael McFaul, said in a statement. “The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to other issues in our bilateral relationship.”
In his statement, and in messages on Twitter in Russian, McFaul urged Russian officials to instead focus on working with the U.S. to implement a bilateral agreement on adoptions that was ratified earlier this year and only took effect Nov. 1. “It would be more productive,” McFaul wrote.
It is still unclear whether the ban will become law. President Vladimir Putin, who could veto the legislation or demand changes, was asked about it eight times at his annual news conference Thursday, but he refused to state a firm view. He said he needed time to read the measure and to consult with lawyers and others experts.
The first few months of Putin’s latest term as president, which began in May, have been marked by a series of tough legislative measures and other steps aimed at curtailing what he views as undue influence by the U.S. and the West in Russia’s affairs. An adoption ban would be an even more forceful move again the U.S.
The vote in the Duma, the lower house of the parliament, was 420-7 with one abstention. The bill is expected to be considered next week by the Federal Assembly, the upper chamber, where legislative leaders have said they expect it will easily win approval.
The Russian measure was developed in retaliation for a new U.S. law that will punish Russian citizens who are accused of violating human rights, by barring them from travel to the U.S. and from owning real estate or maintaining financial assets there. The law was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison in 2009 after trying to expose a huge government tax fraud. His supporters say he was denied proper medical care.
The Russian bill was named for Dmitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died in Virginia in 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours. The father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of manslaughter by a judge who ruled that while he was negligent he had not shown the “callous disregard for human life” required for conviction.
In addition to banning adoptions, the law would bar organizations that help Americans adopt from operating in Russia, and it would impose new restrictions on people who hold both Russian and U.S. citizenship to keep them from working for nonprofit groups that work in the political sphere.
Earlier this year, Russia ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development to cease operations, ending two decades of partnership on public-health campaigns, civil-society initiatives and other programs.
In his statement Friday, McFaul warned that the law “would link the fate of orphaned children to unrelated political issues.”
“We appreciate President Putin’s comment yesterday that most American adoptive parents are kind and caring people,” McFaul said. “American families, in fact, have welcomed more than 60,000 Russian children into their families over the past 20 years, many of whom are special needs children.”
McFaul also expressed regret over abuse cases, and said it was concern over such cases that led to the new agreement earlier this year.
Critics of the ban in Russia, including Ilya Ponomarev, a member of the parliament from the Just Russia party, said that Russian children were at a statistically greater risk of abuse and death in Russia than they were in the U.S.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/22/2012