Federal Law of 28 December 2012 No. 272-FZ "On Sanctions for Individuals Violating Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens of the Russian Federation",A law on sanctions for individuals violating fundamental human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens has been signed
. Kremlin.ru, 28 December 2012. popularly known as the Dima Yakovlev Law (), is a law in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

that defines sanctions against U.S. citizens involved in "violations of the human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens". It creates a list of citizens who are banned from entering Russia, and also allows the government to freeze their assets and investments. The law suspends the activity of politically active non-profit organisations which receive money from American citizens or organisations. It also bans citizens of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from adopting children from Russia. The law was signed by

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

on 28 December 2012 and took effect on 1 January 2013. The law is informally named after a Russian orphan adopted by a family from

Purcellville, Virginia Purcellville is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, Loudoun County, Virginia. The population was 8,929 according to the 2020 census. Purcellville is the major population center for Western Loudoun and the Loudoun Valley. Many of the older struct ...

, who died of

heat stroke Heat stroke or heatstroke, also known as sun-stroke, is a severe heat illness that results in a body temperature greater than , along with red skin, headache, dizziness, and confusion. Sweating is generally present in exertional heatstro ...

after being left in a parked car for nine hours. The law is described as a response to the

Magnitsky Act The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in D ...

in the United States, which places sanctions on Russian officials who were involved in a tax scandal exposed by Russian lawyer

Sergei Magnitsky Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (, ; ; 8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) was a Russian tax advisor responsible for exposing corruption and misconduct by Russian government officials while representing client Hermitage Capital Management. His ...

; Magnitsky was alleged to have been handcuffed and tortured while in jail, supported by the official post-mortem expert opinion of the Russian Forensic Medical Examination Center of the Russian Ministry of Health.

Voting for the law in Russian Parliament

The bill was proposed by

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

deputy Ekaterina Lakhova. The bill passed the

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

on 21 December 2012 and the

Federation Council The Federation Council, unofficially Senate, is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, with the lower house being the State Duma. It was established by the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993. Each of the 89 federal s ...

on 27 December 2012. In the Duma, the bill's first reading saw one vote against (

Ilya Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (, ; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian people, Russian-Ukrainian people, Ukrainian politician who was a member of the Russian State Duma from 2007 to 2016. He was the only member of the State Duma not to vote in fa ...

). The second reading received four votes against (

, Dmitry Gudkov, Valery Zubov, Sergei Petrov - all from the

A Just Russia A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

faction), while the third and final reading was opposed by eight members (the previous four plus Andrei Ozerov from A Just Russia, Oleg Smolin and

Zhores Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Alferov ( rus, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, , ʐɐˈrɛs ɨˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ɐlˈfʲɵrəf}; ; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the cr ...

from the Communist Party of Russia, Boris Reznik from United Russia). A

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

press release states they "deeply regret Russia's passage of a law ending inter-country adoptions between the United States and Russia".

United States Ambassador to Russia The ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Russian Federation. Since January 30, 2023, Lynne M. Tracy is serving as the ...

Michael McFaul Michael Anthony McFaul (born October 1, 1963) is an American academic and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul became the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studies in ...

said the law will "link the fate of orphaned children to unrelated political issues."

Namesake

In the State Duma, the law was informally named after Dima Yakovlev (born Dmitry Yakovlev), a Russian toddler who was adopted by Miles Harrison of Virginia. The child was renamed Chase Harrison while in the United States. In July 2008, less than three months after he arrived in the United States, Dima died while he was strapped into his adoptive father's car. He had been left alone for nine hours in the car after his father forgot to take him to daycare service. Following trial, Harrison was acquitted of

involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

by a Circuit Court judge in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most p ...

, in January 2009. The case became national news in Russia, highlighting abuse cases involving Russian children adopted by American parents. Following the child's death, Russian federal prosecutors opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident, while Russian authorities called for restriction or ending of the adoption of Russian children by Americans. On 28 December 2012,

Governor of Pskov Oblast The governor of Pskov Oblast () is the highest official of Pskov Oblast, a Federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. The Governor (Russia), governor heads the executive branch in the region. History of office On 15 November 1991, b ...

Andrey Turchak Andrey Anatolyevich Turchak (; born 20 December 1975) is a Russian politician who currently serves as Head of the Altai Republic since 3 October 2024. He has also served as Secretary of the General Council of United Russia from 12 October 2017 t ...

suspended two officials pending an investigation into their roles in the adoption of Dima Yakovlev.

Reactions

Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said that the law will be contested in Russian constitutional courts.

Support

The

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

supports the law. Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin says orphans adopted by American citizens "won't get a truly Christian upbringing and that means falling away from the Church and from the path to eternal life, in God's kingdom". According to the independent ''

Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

'', the ban is popular among Russians.

Criticism

Western

The U.S. media outlets ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'', ''

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

'', ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', and a local

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, media affiliate criticised the move. The British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' says it is "not about children's rights" and "ruins lives and leaves both countries looking sordid". After the law was signed on December 28, the day many Christians mark as the

Massacre of the Innocents The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew ( 2:16– 18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and u ...

, the law is referred to by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' as "Herod's law" and "cannibalistic".

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

called the law "in no one's best interest" and called for Russian parliamentarians to reject the law.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson says the law "could deprive them (Russian orphans) of the loving families they desperately need".

Russian

On 14 January 2013, about 20,000 people marched against the law in Moscow. Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar says "Russian orphans should not become hostages of politics."

Aftermath

From 1991 to 2010, over 50,000 Russian orphans were adopted in the United States; however, according to ''

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

'', U.S. adoptions of Russian children fell by two-thirds from 2004 to 2009. At the time of the 2012 ban, over one thousand prospective adoptions were in progress. Among these prospective adoptions were about 200 Russian orphans told they were to be adopted. In January 2017, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

levied a fine on Russia, ruling that the ban constituted unlawful discrimination against prospective parents based on their nationality.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

A law on sanctions for individuals violating fundamental human rights and freedoms of Russian citizens has been signed
// Kremlin.ru, December 28, 2012
Подписан закон о мерах воздействия на лиц, причастных к нарушениям основополагающих прав и свобод человека, прав и свобод граждан России
// Kremlin.ru, December 28, 2012 (With full text of Law and short note)
The Russian adoption ban fits the Putin agenda: The logic of the Dima Yakovlev law is inevitable but short-sighted
FIIA Comment (1)2013, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
V. The "Dima Yakovlev Law"
// Laws of Attrition.

, 2013.
''To the Moon and Back''
a 2016 documentary by Susan Morgan Cooper, about the Dima Yakovlev Law. {{Russia–United States relations 2012 in Russia 2012 in law 2012 scandals 2013 in Russia 2013 in law 2013 scandals Adoption law Immigration law Immigration to the United States Law of Russia Magnitsky Act Political scandals in Russia Russian diaspora Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Russia–United States relations Sanctions legislation