HispanicBusiness

Text of report by Russian political commentary website Politkom.ru on 24 December

[Article by Tatyana Stanovaya, director of a research department of the Center for Political Strategy: "Orphans Law: Ministers and the Opposition Against the State Duma"]

On 19 December the State Duma gave a bill which is positioned by the authorities as Russia's response to the Magnitsky Act signed by the US president, and which has in the press and on the Internet acquired the adjectives "cannibalistic" and "sordid," its second, key, reading. On 21 December the bill was given its third, final, reading. Providing for a total ban on the adoption of Russian orphaned children by American citizens, the bill has given rise to an unprecedented wave of protest, not only consolidating against the law the opposition but also provoking a split within the authorities. The bill was opposed by many members of the government, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who reports to the president.

On 14 December, the day that US President Barack Obama signed the act abolishing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment and adopting the Magnitsky Act, the State Duma gave the "retaliatory action" its first reading. The bill "Action Against Persons Party to a Violation of the Rights of RF Citizens" was submitted to the State Duma back in 2011 as an action in response to the Magnitsky Act which was being prepared in the United States. It imposed a ban on Russian entry and the attachment of the accounts in Russian banks of foreigners who have caused property damage and mental anguish to RF citizens abroad. "Defense baron" Vitkor Bout, who has been found guilty of illicit arms trading, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who has been found guilty of a conspiracy aimed at smuggling narcotics, and Aleksandr Kashin were mentioned in the explanatory note as examples of violations of the rights of Russian citizens. The latter was hit by the vehicle of Douglas Kent, US consul general in the Far East, the proceedings against whom were quashed on account of immunity. True, this event occurred back in 1998--so that so old a case even was employed to justify the need for the bill's adoption.

But by its second reading the bill had been reinforced by fundamentally significant new amendments. It is contemplated barring Russians with American citizenship from being a member or executive of a nonprofit engaging in political activity (and if such nonprofits are financed from the United States, their activity must be suspended--the concept of "political activity" may be interpreted very broadly, what is more), terminating the activity of American child-adoption agencies, and banning the adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens. It is the latter amendment made by Yekaterina Lakhova (United Russia) and Yelena Afanasyeva (LDPR) that has had unprecedented repercussions. According to the statistics, the majority of children who were adopted by foreign citizens in 2011 were handed over to be fostered by US citizens (956 persons), and the United States was the record-settter in terms of the number of adopted Russian handicapped children also. The United States has in the past 20 years adopted 60,000 Russian children, this figure having been given out this year by the US Embassy. Nineteen children have in this time died at the hands of Americans, whereas in the Russian Federation 1,500 children have been casualties at the hands