MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti) – An online petition to make Russian lawmakers, who voted in favor of the US adoptions ban, accountable under the Magnitsky Act, has gained the required number of signatures to be considered by the US administration, the US White House announced on Sunday.
The petition was posted on the White House website on December 21 and has gained the required 25,000 signatures within just two days. By Sunday afternoon, 26,750 people have signed it.
The petition says lawmakers of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, who approved the ban in the third and final reading on Friday, have “breached all imaginable boundaries of humanity, responsibility, or common sense and chose to jeopardize lives and well-being of thousands of Russian orphans.”
A total of 420 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, written as a retaliatory response to the US Magnitsky Act, which imposes sanctions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations. The Russian bill is nearly identical. It imposes sanctions on Americans accused of human rights violations, but it also imposes a ban on Americans adopting Russian children.
Seven lawmakers voted against, with one abstention.
To become a law, the adoption bill still needs to be approved by the upper house, the Federation Council, and signed by the president.
The Magnitsky Act was named in part for whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow jail three years ago.
Magnitsky was arrested on tax fraud charges after accusing a group of Russian officials of embezzling $230 million of state money. He died after 11 months in pretrial detention.
Magnitsky’s death was officially blamed on his health problems, but the Kremlin’s own human rights council said in 2011 that he was severely beaten hours before dying, and Magnitsky’s supporters claim the case against him was fabricated in revenge for his exposes.
