Russia Banning Adoptions

From Yahoo:

"Putin says he will sign anti-US adoptions bill"

 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, while the Kremlin's children's rights advocate recommended extending the ban to the rest of the world. The bill is part of the country's increasingly confrontational stance with the West and has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point. The law would block dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off a major route out of often-dismal orphanages. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children — more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades. UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child. Russian officials say they want to encourage more Russians to adopt Russian orphans. The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russian officials deemed to be human rights violators. The U.S. law, called the Magnitsky Act, stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in jail after being arrested by police officers whom he accused of a $230 million tax fraud. The law prohibits officials allegedly involved in his death from entering the U.S. Kremlin critics say that means Russian officials who own property in the West and send their children to Western schools would lose access to their assets and families. The U.S. State Department says it regrets the Russian Parliament's decision to pass the bill, saying it would prevent many children from growing up in families. The passage of the bill follows weeks of a hysterical media campaign on Kremlin-controlled television that lambasts American adoptive parents and adoption agencies that allegedly bribe their way into getting Russian children. A spokesman with Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that the children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not "enter God's kingdom." Critics of the bill have left dozens of stuffed toys and candles outside the parliament's lower and upper houses to express solidarity with Russian orphans.

^ I have to laugh at this as it is beyond ridiculous. I understand countries try to out-do each other when a bill or incident against their country comes out, but to use children (orphans at that) as political fodder is just insane especially for a country like Russia. I have written about Russian orphanages before and how the orphans are treated - in Russia - very poorly. Why doesn't the Russian Government focus on that? I do not agree that any child - adopted or not - and regardless of what country they live in/came from should be abused or killed, but to punish innocent orphans and families who want to adopt them out of political spite doesn't seem right. I find it "funny" that the Russian Orthodox Church just had to get their two cents in. Why isn't the Church doing more to help the orphans within Russia if they care so much about their souls as they claim to? I could understand if Russia also made provisions to care for orphans within Russia much better than they have been (better orphanages, food, access to education, encouraging Russian families to adopt the children, etc) but the Russian Government is not doing that. It is clear the Government is mad about being called out on their poor human rights issues and rather than deal with those issues - that everyone knows about, but doesn't nothing  - or helping the orphans they simply want to make a Soviet-style broad message  since they have no other recourse. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/putin-says-sign-anti-us-adoptions-bill-122506016.html