The new piece of legislation proposed in the Russian parliament which seeks to ban Americans from adopting children from Russia has gained increasing support as the Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media that he endorses the bill.
A day after Christmas, the Russian Parliament's upper house voted unanimously to legalize the ban. The Parliament's lower house voted overwhelming in favor of bill on Christmas.
The new legislative piece has evoked strong criticism from the United States as well as Russian activists who say that the bill is a tremendous injustice to country's numerous orphaned children. According to UNICEF, Russia currently has 740,000 who are orphaned or without any parental guardianship.
The bill is said to be a direct retort to the recently placed U.S. sanctions on Russia. The U.S. Magnitsky Act was enacted early December. According to Antiwar, the sanction enables "seizing the assets of Russian officials and banning them access to the US if they were involved in the detention and eventual death of millionaire investor Sergei Magnitsky has prompted a retaliatory bill from the Russian government."
However, Russian lawmakers say the law came into conception after the death of Dima Yakovlev, after whom the bill is named. Yakovlev is one of the 19 children who reportedly died due to the abuse of U.S. adopted parents. In a news conference last week, President Putin said of that his decision to support the legislation was "emotional but adequate," as reported by Christian Science Monitor.
However, many political analysts say the President will likely make some serious amendments to bill before it receives his approval, "It's perfectly possible that Putin will ultimately adjust the adoption ban, but leave in place many of the other tough measures in this bill that haven't gotten much attention," Nikolai Petrov, an analyst at Moscow Carnegie Center told CSM.
It remains to be seen, if the president will ultimately sign the bill in its existing form or like Petrov suggests make some substantial changes to the ban before it is transformed into law.
