Putin Signs U.S. Adoption Ban

Not exactly surprising, but devastating nonetheless. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on Friday that will ban all overseas U.S. adoptions. The unprecedented move is part of a harsh response by Putin for a U.S. law that targets alleged human-rights violators—a feud that escalated after a Russian judge on Friday acquitted the only official to go to trial in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer whose case inspired the U.S. law. While some top Russian officials—including the foreign minister—have been outspoken against the ban, it easily passed both houses of Parliament and Putin signed it less than 24 hours after it appeared on his desk. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said to the state news agency that “practically, all adoption stops on Jan. 1.”