A ban on Americans adopting Russian children sailed through the upper house of Russian Parliament Wednesday. The legislation echoes strong anti-American sentiments shared by many of Russia’s political class—sparked namely by President Obama’s signing of a law prohibiting access to visas and U.S. bank accounts for any Russian officials linked to the controversial death of imprisoned whistleblower, Sergei Magnitsky. If passed into law, the ban on adoption will be Moscow’s promised “symmetrical” response to the Magnitsky Act, not to mention one of the most controversial laws of Vladimir Putin’s reign over the country.
