The Times-Picayune: Congress urges Putin to continue U.S. adoptions of Russian children
Bruce Alpert
WASHINGTON -- More than 70 members of Congress Friday signed onto a letter urging President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin to work together to allow U.S. adoptions of Russian children that are already underway to be completed. The effort was led by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., co-chair of the Congressional Coalition of Adoption and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo, who has adopted a Russian child.
Last month, Putin signed into law a ban on the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens - a move seen as retaliation for a U.S. law imposing sanctions on Russians accused of human rights violations.
In their letter to Putin, Landrieu and her colleagues wrote: "The U.S. families matched with these children already love them like their own and have invested a great deal of time and resources in pursuit of a final adoption. We appeal to you to look beyond politics and see the people this law most directly affects."
In a separate letter sent Friday to President Obama, the lawmakers wrote, "We ask you, as a father and a man who cares deeply about the well-being of children, to make this issue a priority in our bilateral relationship with Russia in your personal dealings with President Putin, and to instruct our nation's diplomats to raise it with Russian officials at all levels of government."
Also signing the letters was Sen. David Vitter, R-La.
"Putin's ban is simply retaliatory," Vitter said. "We need to stand up to this ridiculous order, stand by our support for human rights, and continue processing the adoptions that have already been matched," Vitter said.
According to Landrieu's office, Russia's Ministry of Science and Education estimates that 110,000 children in Russia live in institutions, many of whom have special needs that many orphanages cannot adequately address. Long-term institutionalization has been linked to neurological and emotional difficulties in children.
