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The Dima Yakovlev Law (russian: Закон Димы Яковлева), Dima Yakovlev Bill, Dima Yakovlev Act, anti-Magnitsky law, or Law of Scoundrels (officially Federal Law of 28 December 2012 No.272-FZ "On Sanctions for Individuals Violating Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens of the Russian Federation")A law on sanctions for individuals violating fundamental human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens has been signed
// Kremlin.ru, 28 December 2012.
is a law in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
that defines sanctions against U.S. citizens involved in "violations of the human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens". It creates a list of citizens who are banned from entering Russia, and also allows the government to freeze their assets and investments. The law suspends the activity of politically active non-profit organisations which receive money from American citizens or organisations. It also bans citizens of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
from
adopting Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
children from Russia. The law was signed by
Russian President The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
on 28 December 2012 and took effect on 1 January 2013. The law is informally named after a Russian orphan adopted by a family from
Purcellville, Virginia Purcellville is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia. The population was 8,929 according to the 2020 Census. Purcellville is the major population center for Western Loudoun and the Loudoun Valley. Many of the older structures remaining in Purcellvil ...
, who died of
heat stroke Heat stroke or heatstroke, also known as sun stroke, is a severe heat illness that results in a body temperature greater than , along with red skin, headache, dizziness, and confusion. Sweating is generally present in exertional heatstroke, ...
after being left in a parked car for nine hours. The law is described as a response to the
Magnitsky Act The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in D ...
in the United States, which places sanctions on Russian officials who were involved in a tax scandal exposed by Russian lawyer
Sergei Magnitsky Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (russian: Сергeй Леонидович Магнитский, ; 8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) was a Ukrainian-born Russian tax advisor responsible for exposing corruption and misconduct by Russian gover ...
against Russian officials; Magnitsky was alleged to have been handcuffed and tortured while in jail, albeit without supporting evidence for claims of torture.


Voting for the law in Russian Parliament

The bill was proposed by
United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...
deputy Ekaterina Lakhova. The bill passed the
State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
on 21 December 2012 and the
Federation Council The Federation Council (russian: Сове́т Федера́ции – ''Soviet Federatsii'', common abbreviation: Совфед – ''Sovfed''), or Senate (officially, starting from July 1, 2020) ( ru , Сенат , translit = Senat), is th ...
on 27 December 2012. In the Duma, the bill's first reading saw one vote against (
Ilya Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (russian: Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian politician who was a member of the State Duma from 2007 to 2016. He was the only member of the State Duma not to ...
). The second reading received four votes against (
Ilya Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (russian: Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian politician who was a member of the State Duma from 2007 to 2016. He was the only member of the State Duma not to ...
,
Dmitry Gudkov Dmitry Gennadyevich Gudkov (russian: Дмитрий Геннадьевич Гудков; born 19 January 1980) is a Russian politician and opposition leader. He was elected as a member of the State Duma in 2011–2016. His father, Gennady Gud ...
,
Valery Zubov Valery Mikhailovich Zubov (Russian: Валерий Михайлович Зубов; 9 May 1953 - 27 April 2016), was a Russia, Russian politician and economist who had served as a member of the State Duma from 2000 to 2016. Zubov had also serve ...
,
Sergei Petrov Sergei Andreyevich Petrov (russian: Сергей Андреевич Петров; born 2 January 1991) is a Russian football player who plays as a right-back for FC Krasnodar. Career He made his debut for the main Zenit Saint Petersburg squad ...
- all from the
A Just Russia A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
faction), while the third and final reading was opposed by eight members (the previous four plus Andrei Ozerov from A Just Russia,
Oleg Smolin Oleg Nikolayevich Smolin (russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Смо́лин; born 10 February 1952, the village Poludino, North Kazakhstan Region) is a Soviet and Russian politician and philosopher, a specialist in the philosophy of politi ...
and
Zhores Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (russian: link=no, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, ; be, Жарэс Іва́навіч Алфёраў; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed signific ...
from the Communist Party of Russia, Boris Reznik from United Russia). A
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
press release states they "deeply regret Russia's passage of a law ending inter-country adoptions between the United States and Russia".
United States Ambassador to Russia The ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Russian Federation. Since September 4, 2022, Elizabeth Rood is serving as the ...
Michael McFaul Michael Anthony McFaul (born October 1, 1963) is an American academic and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul is currently the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studi ...
said the law will "link the fate of orphaned children to unrelated political issues."


Namesake

In the State Duma, the law was informally named after Dima Yakovlev (born Dmitry Yakovlev), a Russian toddler who was adopted by Miles Harrison of Virginia. The child was renamed Chase Harrison while in the United States. In July 2008, less than three months after he arrived in the United States, Dima died while he was strapped into his adoptive father's car. He had been left alone for nine hours in the car after his father forgot to take him to daycare service. Following trial, Harrison was acquitted of
involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th c ...
by a Circuit Court judge in
Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
, in January 2009. The case became national news in Russia, highlighting abuse cases involving Russian children adopted by American parents. Following the child's death, Russian federal prosecutors opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident, while Russian authorities called for restriction or ending of the adoption of Russian children by Americans. On 28 December 2012,
Governor of Pskov Oblast The governor of Pskov Oblast (russian: Губернатор Псковской области) is the highest official of Pskov Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. The governor heads the executive branch in the region. History of office On 15 N ...
Andrey Turchak Andrey Anatolyevich Turchak (russian: Андрей Анатольевич Турчак; born 20 December 1975) is a Russian politician who has served Secretary of the General Council of United Russia from 12 October 2017 and the Senator from Ps ...
suspended two officials pending an investigation into their roles in the adoption of Dima Yakovlev.


Reactions

Russian human rights ombudsman
Vladimir Lukin Senator Vladimir Petrovich Lukin, sometimes (rarely and erroneously) Lokin, (russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Луки́н; born 13 July 1937, in Omsk) is a Russian politician who served as Human Rights Commissioner of Russia from F ...
said that the law will be contested in Russian constitutional courts.


Support

The
Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...
supports the law. Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin says orphans adopted by American citizens "won't get a truly Christian upbringing and that means falling away from the Church and from the path to eternal life, in
God's kingdom The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" b ...
". According to the independent ''
Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates su ...
'', the ban is popular among Russians.


Criticism


Western

The U.S. media outlets ''
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'', ''
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
'', ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'', ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', and a local
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Texas, media affiliate criticised the move. The British newspaper ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' says it is "not about children's rights" and "ruins lives and leaves both countries looking sordid." After the law was signed on December 28, the day many Christians mark as the Massacre of the Innocents, the law is referred to by ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' as "Herod's law" and "cannibalistic".
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
called the law "in no one's best interest" and called for Russian parliamentarians to reject the law.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson says the law "could deprive them (Russian orphans) of the loving families they desperately need."


Russian

On 14 January 2013, about 20,000 people marched against the law in Moscow. Russian Chief Rabbi
Berel Lazar Shlomo Dov Pinchas Lazar (born May 19, 1964), better known as Berel Lazar, is an Orthodox, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi. He began his service in Russia in 1990. Known for his friendship with Vladimir Putin, since 2000, he has been a Chief Rabbi ...
says "Russian orphans should not become hostages of politics."


Aftermath

1991 to 2010, over 50,000 Russian orphans were adopted in the United States; however, according to ''
Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
'', U.S. adoptions of Russian children fell by two-thirds from 2004 to 2009. At the time of the 2012 ban, over one thousand prospective adoptions were in progress. Among these prospective adoptions were about 200 Russian orphans told they were to be adopted. In January 2017, the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
levied a fine on Russia, stating the ban unlawfully discriminates on the basis of nationality.


References


External links


A law on sanctions for individuals violating fundamental human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens has been signed
// Kremlin.ru, December 28, 2012
Подписан закон о мерах воздействия на лиц, причастных к нарушениям основополагающих прав и свобод человека, прав и свобод граждан России
// Kremlin.ru, December 28, 2012 (With full text of Law and short note)
The Russian adoption ban fits the Putin agenda: The logic of the Dima Yakovlev law is inevitable but short-sighted
FIIA Comment (1)2013, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
V. The "Dima Yakovlev Law"
// Laws of Attrition.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, 2013.
''To the Moon and Back''
a 2016 documentary by Susan Morgan Cooper, about the Dima Yakovlev Law. {{Russia–United States relations Adoption law Sanctions legislation Immigration law Law of Russia Russia–United States relations 2012 in Russia 2013 in Russia 2012 in law 2013 in law Political scandals in Russia Immigration to the United States 2012 scandals 2013 scandals Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Russian diaspora Magnitsky Act