Russia close to banning American adoptions

MOSCOW -- Defying a storm of domestic and international criticism, Russia's upper house of Parliament voted unanimously yesterday in favor of banning American adoptions of Russian children, a measure that President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will sign into law.

The bill is widely seen as the Kremlin's retaliation against an American law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although Putin has not explicitly committed to signing the bill, he strongly defended it in a news conference last week as "a sufficient response" to the new U.S. law.

Putin has taken a growingly confrontational stance toward the West, brushing aside concerns about a crackdown on dissent and democratic freedoms.

Dozens of Russian children close to being adopted by American families now will almost certainly be blocked from leaving the country.

The law also cuts off the main international adoption route for Russian children stuck in often dismal orphanages. Tens of thousands of Russian youngsters have been adopted in the United States in the past 20 years. There are about 740,000 children without parental care in Russia, according to UNICEF.

All 143 members of the Federation Council present voted to support the bill, which has sparked criticism from U.S. and Russian officials, activists and artists, who say it victimizes children by depriving them of the chance to escape the squalor of orphanage life. The vote comes days after Parliament's lower house overwhelmingly approved the ban.

The U.S. State Department said it regretted the Russian parliament's decision.

"Since 1992, American families have welcomed more than 60,000 Russian children into their homes, providing them with an opportunity to grow up in a family environment," spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement. "It is misguided to link the fate of children to unrelated political considerations," he said.