MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill banning the services of surrogate mothers in Russia for foreigners, as well as for single men, according to the government’s legal data portal.

The law states that the services of surrogate mothers can be provided only to Russian citizens in a marriage of a single Russian woman, who for health reasons can’t bear or give birth to a child on her own.

The bill establishes the right of former spouses to be formalized as the parents of the child born by a surrogate mother only if the court does not find that their dissolved marriage was a sham. If one of the spouses has died during the pregnancy of a surrogate mother, or one or both of the spouses or the single woman have stopped being Russian nationals, they can be registered as the parents with the consent of the surrogate mother.

A child born to a surrogate mother in Russia would be given Russian citizenship.

The bill prohibits the simplified procedure of the renunciation of citizenship for children born to surrogate mothers if one of the parents is a Russian national and the other a foreigner, or both parents are foreigners.

The law will take effect on the day of its official publication. The clause that grants Russian citizenship to a child born to a surrogate mother applies to cases when a surrogate mother is pregnant or has given birth to a child by agreement with the potential parents as of the day the law enters into force.

The requirement of a registered marriage and Russian citizenship of one of the potential parents, single women or surrogate mothers doesn’t apply if the surrogate mother is already carrying the child as of the day the law enters into force.