Adoptions ban in Russia sent for Putin’s approval

Thursday, December 27, 2012

— The upper chamber of Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill to ban adoptions of Russian children by U.S. citizens, sending the measure to President Vladimir Putin, who has voiced support but has not yet said if he will sign it.

Enactment of the adoption ban, which was developed in retaliation for a U.S. law punishing Russians accused of violating human rights, would be the most severe blow yet to relations between Russia and the United States in a year marked by a series of setbacks.

The vote in the Federal Council was 143-0, with 43 senators absent. By law, Putin has two weeks to act on the bill, but a decision is expected sooner. The bill calls for the ban to take effect Tuesday.

The U.S. ambassador, Michael McFaul, who criticized the bill after the lower house passed it last week, posted a more restrained comment on Twitter on Wednesday noting the fierce disagreement that has emerged within Russian government and society.

“I agree with hundreds of thousands of Russians who want children removed from political debate,” McFaul wrote. “Saddened by Federal Council vote today.”

Since Putin returned to the presidency in May, Russian officials have used a juggernaut of legislation and executive decisions to curtail U.S. influence and involvement in Russia, undoing partnerships that began after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In September, the Kremlin ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development to cease operations, shutting a wide portfolio of public health, civil society and other initiatives. And officials announced plans to terminate a joint effort to dismantle nuclear, chemical and other nonconventional weapons known as the Nunn-Lugar agreement.

Russia also passed a law requiring nonprofit groups that get f inancing from abroad to register as “foreign agents,” sharply curtailing the ability of the United States to work with good-government groups, and another law broadening the definition of treason to include “providing financial, technical, advisory or other assistance to a foreign state or international organization.”

The adoption ban, however, is the first step to take direct aim at the American public and would effectively undo a bilateral agreement on international adoptions that was ratified this year and took effect Nov. 1. That agreementcalled for heightened oversight in response to several high-profile cases of abuse and deaths of adopted Russian children in the United States.

About 1,000 Russian children were adopted by U.S. parents in 2011, more than any other country, and more than 45,000 such children have been adopted by U.S. parents since 1999.

Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s child rights commissioner, told news agencies Wednesday that, if enacted, the ban could prevent the departure of 46 children who were ready to be adopted by parents from the United States. Some of those adoptions have already received court approval, he said, raising the specter of wrenching emotional turmoil for the families involved.

Some Russian lawmakerssaid they believed that the bilateral agreement on adoptions with the United States would be void as of Tuesday, even though Putin, at his annual news conference last week, said changes to the agreement required one-year notice by either side.

The proposed ban has opened a rare split at the highest levels of the Russian government, with several senior officials speaking out against it. And it has provoked a public outcry and debate, with critics of the ban saying it would most hurt Russian orphans, many of whom are already suffering in the country’s deeply troubled child-welfare system.

In their debate Wednesday, lawmakers said they felt compelled to retaliate for a law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this month thatwill punish Russian citizens accused of violating human rights, by prohibiting them from traveling to the United States and from owning real estate or other assets there.

Lawmakers also said Russia, which has more than 650,000 children living without parental supervision, should take care of them on its own. At the same time, the lawmakers acknowledged the flaws in the system and on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for measures to make adoption by Russian citizens easier.

“The attitude toward the protection of parenthood and childhood has to change drastically on every level,” the resolution said, citing excessive bureaucracy, lack of financing for children’s medical care and insufficient efforts to promote adoption.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/27/2012