The State Duma Committee supported the ban on adoption by citizens from unfriendly countries

The State Duma Committee on Family Affairs and Women recommended that a draft law banning citizens of unfriendly states from adopting children from Russia be adopted in the first reading. The document was submitted to the State Duma in August 2022.

How clarifies TASS, the committee’s decision appeared on March 4 in the Duma’s electronic database. The Council of the State Duma will be offered to include the initiative in the draft procedure for the work of the chamber on March 15 for consideration in the first reading.

“The State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children decided to recommend that the State Duma adopt a draft federal law <...> “On Amendments to Articles 127 and 146 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation,” the document says.

A bill banning citizens of unfriendly countries from adopting children from Russia was submitted to the State Duma in August 2022. Its authors were deputies from all parties except United Russia. In the explanatory note, the authors say that in 2021, foreign adoptive parents had 17,498, and Russians had 455,866 orphans. The authors of the document considered that the adoption of Russian orphans by citizens of “unfriendly” states “does not meet the national interests” of the country.

At the same time, the explanatory note states that the draft law is not aimed at a complete ban on foreign adoption and does not exclude partnership with foreign states on all issues related to children who have already been placed for adoption by foreign citizens.

In January, the Ministry of Education proposed to postpone the bill, said Secretary of State – Deputy Head of Department Andrei Korneev at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children. According to him, the department was appointed responsible for preparing a response to the legislative initiative. “The idea embodied in the bill is certainly supported by the ministry. It could not be otherwise, because the ministry systematically advocates the priority of adoption by citizens of the Russian Federation, ”Korneev emphasized.

At the same time, he noted that now Russia has four international agreements on adoption with Spain, France and Italy (they have been ratified), as well as with Israel (the agreement has not been ratified by federal law). The adoption of the new law and the denunciation of these four treaties may lead to the fact that Russia will lose the opportunity to accompany already adopted children abroad.

The government approved the list of foreign states “committing unfriendly actions” against the Russian Federation, its citizens or legal entities in May 2021. The list includes only the United States and the Czech Republic. In March 2022, against the background of the beginning of the NWO in Ukraine, the list was expanded for the first time, now it includes 49 states.