MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, a defiant move against the U.S. that has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point.
The law would block dozens of Russian children expected to be adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off one of the main international routes for Russian children to leave often dismal orphanages. Russia is the single biggest source of adopted children in the U.S., with more than 60,000 Russian children being taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
The U.S. State Department has already expressed deep concern about the Russian measure.
Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said late last week that American families over the past two decades “have welcomed more than 60,000 Russian children into American homes.”
“The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to political aspects of our relationship,” Ventrell said.
The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators and part of an increasingly confrontational stance by the Kremlin against the West.
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