Russian lawmakers have approved a measure that would bar Americans from adopting Russian children, a move that comes in retaliation for a U.S. law that seeks to "name and shame" Russian officials who violate human rights.
President Vladimir Putin has voiced support for the adoption ban, but it's not clear whether he'll actually sign the measure, which has potential pitfalls.
As the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, prepared for the final vote on the adoption ban, opponents of the measure stood in the subzero cold outside holding picket signs. Milana Minayeva's sign read: "Don't deprive children of their lives."
"I think [the] upcoming law is outrageous," Minayeva says. She says it's not right to make it impossible for children who have neither help nor parents to have any future at all.
Minayeva is a television producer, not an adoption activist, but she echoes the stance of many critics who say that orphans and adoptive parents should not be used as pawns in a political game.
A Deeper Resentment
The process of retaliation in the Duma taps into some deep and long-standing resentments on the part of Russian officials. Putin let some of that anger show in his yearly press conference this week.
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