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Senator says debate on repealing Dima Yakovlev Law won’t be raised in near future

On January 1, 2013, a law prohibiting US citizens to adopt Russian children was enacted

BERLIN, July 9. /TASS/. First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov believes that the issue of the revisiting of the so-called Dima Yakovlev Law, which, in particular, prohibits US citizens from adopting children from Russia, by Russian parliament will not be on the agenda in the near future.

On Saturday, July 7, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky assured reporters after a meeting between the Russian and US delegations on the sidelines of the 27th summer annual session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) in Berlin that the State Duma will be ready to revisit this law in case of a return of control over the children from Russia adopted in the US.

"Firstly, I’m not sure it’ll happen quickly. Secondly, I’m not sure we will abolish the Dima Yakovlev Law immediately," Dzhabarov told TASS on Monday, on the sidelines of the OSCE PA session. "Too many tragedies have taken place in these 20 years: unfortunately, [Russian children] are adopted by families [in the US] that are problem themselves, and outrageous things and derisions occur," he stated.

"The great nation should not" give its children to other countries for upbringing, the senator said. "We should bring up our children ourselves. It’s quite a different thing that we cannot provide normal upbringing and life for these children sometimes. But we should work on it," he stressed.

"I think that the possible revisiting of the ban for Americans to adopt Russian children won’t be on the agenda in the near future," Dzhabarov concluded.

On January 1, 2013, a law prohibiting US citizens to adopt Russian children was enacted. These measures were part of the Russian response to the US’ Magnitsky Act. The Russian law was unofficially named the Dima Yakovlev Law in memory of a Russian boy who tragically died in an adoptive US family. The law prohibits the transferal of children who are Russian citizens for adoption by US citizens, as well as prohibits the operation in Russia of bodies and organizations aiming to choose and transfer Russian children for adoption by Americans.