Over 40,000 people have signed a petition on the White House website urging to supplement the Magnitsky List with Russian parliamentarians, who supported a new law banning US citizens from adopting Russian children.
The petition was posted on the White House website on December 21. It calls on the Obama administration to “identify those involved in adopting such legislature responsible under the ‘Magnitsky Act’ and thus included to the relevant list." The petition also says lawmakers of the Russia's State Duma, who approved the adoption 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.”
On Friday, December 21, the controversial bill passed in the third reading at the Russia's lower house of the Parliament. A total of 420 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, seven 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.
Author: Julia Alieva