http://www.worldmeets.us/images/Russian-Orphans2_pic.jpg

Firestorm over Russia's orphans: Russia's parliament, the Duma, has

passed a bill in retaliation for an American law which targets Russian

officials involved with human rights abuse. The trouble is, the Duma bill,

by prohibiting the adoption of Russians by Americans, clearly hurts

Russian orphans more than the Americans who wish to adopt them.

 

 

Russia's Image Smeared By Law Punishing Orphans (Kommersant, Russia)

 

"In 1985, British singer Sting released a famous song called Русские [Russians]. It was an impassioned plea to halt the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. In it he sang, 'I hope the Russians love their children too.' Back then, the fact that the answer was 'yes' was taken for granted. Today, it looks far less obvious. ... In America and Europe, people simply cannot fathom that the nation's parliament could invent and adopt anything like the so-called Dima Yakovlev Bill."

 

By Konstantin Eggert

                                     http://www.worldmeets.us/images/Konstantin-Eggert_mug.jpg

 

Translated By Anastassia Tapsieva

 

December 25, 2012

 

Russia - Kommersant - Original Article (Russian)

Sergei Magnitsky: His death in a Russian prison, after implicating top officials in a scheme to defraud the government, is widely regarded as a murder-cover-up in the West, and resulting in the U.S. Magnitsky Bill targeting Russian officials. Now Moscow has passed its own legislation in retaliation. The trouble is, the Dima Yakovlev Bill, named after a Russian boy who choked to death after his adoptive U.S. dad forgot him in a car, hurts Russian orphans more than it does Americans.

 

RUSSIA TODAY VIDEO: Russian President Vladimir Putin lashes out at the U.S., and defends law that halts the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans, Dec. 20, 00:04:39RealVideo

In just days, an online petition calling on Barack Obama to expand the 'Magnitsky list' to include Duma deputies who voted in support a ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans, has collected the required number of signatures. Kommersant analyst Konstantin Eggert believes this has dealt a serious blow to Russia's international image.

 

In 1985, British singer Sting released a famous song called Русские [Russians]. It was an impassioned plea to halt the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. In it he sang, "I hope the Russians love their children too." Back then, the fact that the answer was "yes" was taken for granted. Today, it looks far less obvious.

 

In America and Europe, people simply cannot fathom that the nation's parliament - a parliament belonging to a "Big Eight" country (which, I remind you, is a club of democracies) - could invent and adopt anything like the so-called Dima Yakovlev Bill. Imagine our government's ministers and deputy prime ministers traveling the world, telling people that Russia is not the Soviet Union, that our country has buried the legacy of the Cold War, and that one can and should invest in the new Russia.

 

And then someone like Deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov, or, God forgive me, [Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman] Alexey Pushkov, stands at the Duma lectern and explains on camera for all the world to see how right it is to lock Russian orphans and disabled children up in orphanages in retaliation against Uncle Sam.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

 

After that, foreign lawmakers, diplomats, non-governmental organization, and even many businessmen, slid from their chairs in profound shock. And as a result, many have concluded that comments by our ministers and deputy prime ministers should be taken with skepticism, and that the real Russia is an "other," something morally inferior, and even worse, completely incomprehensible.

 

   

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Izvestia, Russia: Duma Reaction to Magnitsky Bill Deals Blow to Orphans - and Duma
Svoboda News, Russia: Senators in U.S. Get Cold Shoulder Over Magnitsky Act
RAI Novosti, Russia: Russian Government Split on Adoption Law
Moskovskij Komsomolets, Russia: Opposition Must ‘Learn to Swim’ – Not Complain to U.S.
Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Russia: The Magnitsky List, America’s ‘Secret’ Weapon!
Kommersant, Russia: U.S. Magnitsky Act to Trigger 'Harsh Backlash'
Voice of Russia, Russia: Russian Opposition Wants Magnitsky List Expanded
Gazeta, Russia: Good Guys vs. Bad Guys: Russia Today is the Latter
Gazeta, Russia: America is Neither Friend Nor Foe
MK, Russia: Obama's ‘Hope’ Keeps Putin from ‘Window on Paradise’

 

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RECOVER FROM HURRICIANE SANDY

The only way to deal with people who punish their own children out of spite, and at the same time cover up their own corruption, is with apprehension and maximum caution. That is to say, by making sure to have a return ticket out of Moscow with an open date.

 

For foreign companies, which spend millions on programs for corporate responsibility in Russia, this is a very practical question. Who knows, maybe tomorrow these overzealous lawmakers will bar them from aiding orphanages not to tempt Russian childhood and adolescence with the alien Western values of compassion and solidarity? Russia's ruling class believes this is a demonstration of power and so-called pragmatism. But Russia's partners see in this bravado only weakness, greed, and a total disregard for the interests of their own country.

 

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[Posted by Worldmeets.US Dec. 25, 7:53pm]

 

 

 

 

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