On Wednesday, the Upper House of Russia's Parliament voted on a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian children.
The measure was approved by all 143 members of the Federation Council. The bill will now go to President Putin’s desk for signing. Although Putin isn’t committed to signing the bill, he is expected to do so.
The bill, named in honor of Dima Yakovlev, will end bilateral adoption agreements between the United States and Russia and also forbids any American adoption agencies from doing business in Russia. Yakovlev, a Russian toddler, died after being left in a vehicle by his adoptive father for 9 hours in searing heat in July of 2008. The young boy, renamed Chase Harrison, was only 21 months old and had only been in America for three months when the incident occurred. The public outcry in Russia over his death was enormous, but not nearly as much as the outcry that took place in Russia in December of the same year, when the adoptive father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of Involuntary Manslaughter charges.
Judge R. Terrence Ney, Circuit Court Judge for Fairfax County, Virginia, ruled that Harrison’s actions didn’t show “callous disregard for human life,” which is the legal standard for involuntary manslaughter. It was found during the case that Harrison had strapped the young child into his car seat, then drove to his office after forgetting to drop the young boy off at Daycare and forgetting the child was in the vehicle. Nine hours later, a co-worker discovered the child in the SUV.
Officials at the Russian Foreign Ministry said after finding out the results of the court case, “Serious doubts arise as to the legitimacy of the practice of transferring our children for adoption to a country where their rights, primarily the right to life, turn out to be unprotected.”
In January of 2009, Russian Federal Prosecutors opened an investigation into the young boy’s death amid calls to restrict or end the adoption of Russian children by Americans.
The anti-adoption stance would grow even greater, when in April of 2010, a seven-year-old Russian boy was put on a plane back to Russia after having only been in the U.S. for a year. The boy was delivered to the Russian Child Protection Ministry unannounced. It was at that time that Russian foreign Minister announced on Russian television that future adoptions by Americans were banned until new agreements were drawn up and signed by the United States regulating international adoptions between the two countries.
Another abuse case, this time in Alaska, further fueled the opposition in Russia. In a 2011 case, Jessica Beasley was convicted of abusing her adopted Russian son after it was found that she had poured hot sauce into the boy’s mouth then forced him into a cold shower as Beasley’s 10-year-old daughter videotaped the incident. The incident was taped by the Beasleys in an attempt to appear on the “Dr. Phil” show.
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Although the bill passed in Russia last Friday is said to be in response to the repeated abuses of Russian children by adoptive American families, it is widely believed also that the bill was in direct response to the signing of the Magnitsky Act that was signed by President Obama on December 14th.
The Magnitsky Act, which places visa bans and financial sanctions against Russian officials accused of violating human rights laws, was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who uncovered a huge tax fraud by Russian officials stealing from Russia. Magnitsky would be arrested on trumped up charges by police that he had implicated in the scheme, and be placed in a detention center in Moscow. While there he was severely abused and beaten by guards at the facility, his injuries unaddressed. He would die of injuries less than one year after his incarceration. He was to be released within days, as the one year limit on holding without trial was approaching. The Russian officials police, and mafia would make off with $230 million in ill-gotten rebate money.
The Yakovlev bill also places sanctions on Americans thought to have violated human rights and also bars political activities by non-government organizations that receive U.S. money.