Washington Wants to Take the Children

Washington Wants to Take the Children

Interfax - 9 January 2013

by Интерфакс
translated by Phil

Click here for the original article in Russian

Through the State Department the U.S. said it would like to complete the adoption of Russian children who have found adoptive families.  These children were counted as not more than 52 according to Pavel Astakhov [the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights] but were estimated by the Americans as numbering in the hundreds.

Photo: ITAR-TASS

Moscow, January 9.  Washington is trying to negotiate with Moscow about those families that failed to complete the adoption process of their Russian children before the new law entered into affect but still are trying to do it.  "We are continuing to negotiate with the Russian government", said Secretary of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.  "Of course we would like the adoption process in these cases to move forward but the Russian government has informed us that they plan to officially suspend our agreement."  A representative of the Department has said that these families number between 500 to 1,000.  "This is extremely tragic, as you can imagine, not only for the families but also for the children," said Nuland.

The Russian Dima Yakovlev Act (the Anti-Magnitsky Act), signed by the president the 28th of December, was adopted in response to the U.S.'s Magnitsky Bill which imposes sanctions against certain Russian officials who are largely seen as responsible in the 2009 death of Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.  The Anti-Magnitsky Law creates a ban on the adoption of Russian children by American citizens and forbids American led or funded nonprofit organizations from operating in Russia.  So, as of January 1 this year Russia has withdrawn from the agreement with the U.S. on international adoption which was signed in Washington on July 13 of last year.

However, the Russian President's Press Secretary, Dimitry Peskov, said that the ban on Russian adoptions by Americans doesn't affect those adoptions that have already been decided by the courts.  "Of course the law will not apply to cases where there already is a court decision on the adoption," Peskov said in an interview with the Russian News Service on December 28th commenting on the president signing the bill into law.  However, he stressed that in cases "where a judgement has not been made then the [new] law shall take precedence."

At the same time the Press Secretary added that the president "is waiting for the direction of the Supreme Court which will then explain to all the courts the new law's procedures."

Expressing his own opinion, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Pavel Astakhov, suggested that the governor of each Russian region should personally oversee the adoption in Russia of those children that had already been prepared for adoption to American families.  "There are 52 of these children and I think that they should be adopted in Russia under the governor's responsibility," said Astakhov.