Russia's Putin Signs Controversial Adoption Bill





Which raises the question: Why would Russia's leaders choose to retaliate in a way that might do their country's image more harm than good?

Putin told a meeting of top Russian officials on Thursday that he would issue a decree that would change Russia's system for taking care of orphans.

The Russian leader mocked the idea that Russian orphans might have a better life in other countries. He said that while living standards in many countries might be better than Russia's, it doesn't mean they should send their children there.

It may be hard for Americans to fathom why Russia's leaders seem willing to take such a drastic and potentially unpopular step.




"Throughout his tenure, Putin has repeatedly sent the signal, nobody has the right to teach us or preach to us," Lipman says. "And here it comes, the ultimate insult, because it teaches and tell us which Russians will be barred from America because they are implicated in human rights abuse — and the desire to respond is almost irrational."

The Magnitsky Act is named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who exposed what he said was a massive tax fraud on the part of Russian officials.

Human rights groups say Magnitsky was sent to jail in retaliation for his whistle-blowing and that he died there in 2009 as a result of maltreatment and denial of medical attention.

The U.S. act sanctions Russian officials who are believed to have been involved in Magnitsky's death.

Lipman says many of the American lawmakers who voted for the Magnitsky legislation may have done so without much thought to the response it would stir in Russia.

But Russian lawmakers seem not to have considered either the international or domestic reaction to their legislation.

Lipman says outrage against the bill is no longer confined to people who would normally be thought of as opposition members.

"We have a divide inside the Russian Orthodox Church, with some people in the top church hierarchy being against the law and others being for it. We have a split in the Russian Cabinet; several ministers have spoken, cautiously so, but spoken against it, pointing out that this amendment would be in conflict with the Russian Constitution," Lipman adds.

Officials have said the first to suffer from the measure may be 46 American families who have nearly completed the adoption process, and are waiting for their Russian children.




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