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Russia’s Duma to reconsider Dima Yakovlev law if US keeps track of foster children - MP

Until the US sets up a controlling agency there's "nothing to speak about", Chair of the Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said

BERLIN, July 7. /TASS/. The State Duma, lower house of Russia’s parliament, is ready to reconsider the Dima Yakovlev law provided that the United States keeps track of the Russian children adopted by US citizens, Chair of the Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Saturday.

"They (the US delegation - TASS) raised the issue but we gave a clear answer: guys, set up a controlling body in the executive branch and then we will be able to restart discussions on the situation and will probably make some amendments to the Dima Yakovlev law," Slutsky said.

"Until they have a controlling agency, we have nothing to speak about," he warned after a meeting of the Russian and US delegations on the sidelines of the annual summer session of the OSCE PA in Berlin.

In December 2012, Russia enacted a special law on measures against those responsible for violations of Russian citizens (Dima Yakovlev Law, called so in memory of a Russian boy who died in an adoptive family in the United States). Passed in response to the US Magnitsky Act (Washington’s measure to punish Russian officials allegedly responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergey Magnitsky), the law envisages sanctions against US citizens suspected of human rights violations and prohibits adoptions of Russian children by US families.