MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. Children who are born by surrogate mothers for foreigners or stateless persons in Russia will be granted Russian citizenship by birth, reads the draft bill banning surrogacy for foreigners in Russia, which was submitted to the lower house of parliament by a group of lawmakers headed by Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy on Friday.

"A child both in Russia by a surrogate mother <…> receives Russian citizenship by birth if both potential parents or a single woman are not Russian citizens," the bill notes.

One of the initiative’s authors, lawmaker Vasily Piskarev, told reporters that children born or still carried by surrogate mothers on the day when the law enters into force would receive Russian citizenship. According to him, members of parliament realize that some surrogacy contracts will still be active when the law is adopted and, therefore, these children will be protected legally by the state.

Forced measure

The bill sets out that only married Russian citizens or a single Russian woman who cannot carry or bear children herself can use surrogacy. Piskarev underlined that the ban on surrogacy for foreigners "is a forced measure which is dictated by the fact that it is impossible to track fates of a child and protect their rights after they end up overseas because they do not obtain Russian citizenship <…> by birth." "Unfortunately, when we receive potential parents of such a child now in Russia, we cannot check their criminal record for crimes against minors or check that their intentions are good. And there are a lot of reports coming from overseas about unenviable fates of children born by surrogate mothers who end up in sexual slavery or subjected to humiliations," he said.