MOSCOW, January 27 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s Dima Yakovlev Law banning adoptions of Russian children by Americans is not a political response to the U.S. Magnitsky Act but rather an attempt to draw attentions of Russians to the problem of orphans, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the CNN television channel.
Medvedev admitted that the law was an “emotional” move prompted by the relevant resolutions of the U.S. Congress. But “neither in fact nor in law” it is linked with the Magnitsky Act, he stressed.
“The so-called Dima Yakovlev Law is in fact a law which expresses the concerns of Russia’s parliament, the Russian State Duma and the Federation Council, by the fate of our children,” Medvedev said and added that it is a direct responsibility of the state to take care of parentless children.
He noted that the majority of states have no problem of foreign adoptions. They are not banned in Russia, he stressed, but the state must do its best to encourage its citizens to adopt parentless children, to create proper conditions for that. He called it a component of moral culture.
Many foreigners are behaving in a noble way adopting Russian children with disabilities, he noted and added that it is high time for Russians to address this problem.
Despite the fact that many people consider the Dima Yakovlev Law “as an action aimed against certain American citizens who want to adopt Russian children,” it is not so. “We must finally take all the necessary decisions so that there are no orphans in Russia anymore,” the prime minister said. “The U.S. does not have such a problem. Many European countries do not have this problem. We have a good society already and we have people who are well off enough, they are able to give food and shelter to our children. This is the reason behind the decisions we have made.”
The prime minister could not but speak about the deaths of Russian children adopted in the United States and the impunity of their foster parents. Moreover, according to Medvedev, legal mess is another reason for the ban. Although Russia and the United States have recently signed an agreement on adoptions, its provisions are not enforced at the level of states, which refuse to fulfill it, he noted. So, in his words, it is necessary to reappraise what has been done. This agreement must be fulfilled not only in Russia but also in each U.S. state, he stressed.