Russian celebs ask Putin to allow U.S. families complete adoptions

Russian celebs ask Putin to allow U.S. families complete adoptions

PanARMENIAN.Net - A group of prominent Russian artists appealed to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, February 7 to allow dozens of U.S. families to complete previously started adoptions of Russian children, despite introduction of a law earlier this year banning Americans from adopting Russian minors, RIA Novosti said.

The Kremlin introduced that law, known as the Dima Yakovlev bill, on January 1 in response to Washington’s approval of the so-called Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses.

As a result, hundreds of adoptions in various stages of the bureaucratic adoption process were suspended. Many of those U.S. families had already met their would-be children before the ban was introduced.

Chulpan Khamatova, a popular Russian actress and charity campaigner, a co-founder of the Gift of Life NGO which helps Russian children, said the children concerned who have got stuck in Russia's outdated orphange system will grow up “and hate their own country,” which prevented them having a family.

The appeal was backed by Russian rock musician Andrei Makarevich and Yevgeny Mironov, a prominent actor and art director of the Mosocw-based Theater of Nations.

Mironov and Khamatova, a theater and movie star internationally known for her role in the film “Goodbye Lenin,” both backed Putin’s candidacy during his reelection campaign last March in video ads.

Russian officials justified the adoption ban by blaming U.S. parents for the deaths of at least 19 adopted Russian children. More than 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by American families in the last 20 years, including 962 last year, according to U.S. State Department figures.

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