Putin: US adoption ban bill 'appropriate'

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday backed pending parliamentary legislation that would make it illegal for Americans to adopt Russian children in reprisal for a new Washington human rights law.

“I understand that this was an emotional response by the State Duma, but I think that it was appropriate,” Putin told the first major press conference of his third term as president.

He complained bitterly that local US courts had found several Americans not guilty of manslaughter charges following the death of Russian children under their care.

The Russian legislation awaiting final approval in the Duma lower house of parliament on Friday is named in honour of a Russian child who suffocated in a locked car during the summer heat.

“The judges will not even let us attend (the US trials) as observers,” Putin said.
Russia’s new legislation came about after US President Barack Obama signed last week into law the Magnitsky Act, named in honour of a lawyer who died in 2009 after blowing the whistle on a USD 235 police embezzlement scheme.

Magnitsky died under pre-trial arrest that his mother said had exposed him to “torture conditions”.

Putin said the United States had no moral right to pass judgement on Russia’s legal system.

“They themselves have plenty of problems,” Putin said of the United States.