You expect maturity from adults, especially from politicians, but a school yard mentality still persists in a lot of international politics. This is true of Russia’s new law banning the adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens, which serves only to further the rift between the two countries and disadvantage children all at the same time.
There is a significant amount of speculation in the media that the law comes as a retaliation for the US’s recent policies on blocking Russian officials from entering the United States if they have been accused of rights abuses. The act was sparked by the death of an anti-corruption lawyer called Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, who died following torture in prison (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20857068 for more details), having gone to the Russian authorities with information about corruption.
Whether or not the move is actually a retaliation for the US Magnitsky law makes little difference to the childishness of the situation, but it would add a good chunk of petulance. The adoption law fundamentally singles out people from the United States, stopping them from being allowed to adopt Russian orphans.
There are two main issues with the law that make it such an infantile move. The first is the fact that it is only the United States that will no longer be allowed to adopt, making it adversarial like a kid’s strop of “I’m not playing with you any more”. The second and more significant issue is that the law only serves to leave more orphans without parents, meaning that the government is putting international tiffs ahead of the need of its children.
The adoption law doesn’t seem to have been born of a genuine bid to improve the lives of Russian children, whereas the Magnitsky law is designed to put pressure on the reduction of corruption and rights abuses. If Russia wanted a credible response to the law, then maybe a review of officials accused of rights abuses would have been a good starting point. Even mirroring the US law wouldn’t have been a bad shout, equaling the general intention to identify and stamp out rights abuses in politics.
Russia is generally a great country, with a massive history of brilliance ranging from literature, science, space travel, theatre, music and politics, but this stands for nothing if the decisions of today do not live up to the greatness of its past achievements. Glasnost seems to be a little forgotten at the moment, but hopefully the people at the top will remember its importance once again.
