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Russian Opposition lawmakers submit bill canceling adoption ban

The concept of the lawbill was drawn on the strength of the expression of will by 100,000 Russian citizens, who passed their signatures to the State Duma

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 15 (Itar-Tass) — Opposition lawmakers at the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament have submitted a bill cancelling the ban on the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens, Dmitry Gudkov from A Just Russia faction, one of the authors of the document, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

The bill annuls Article 4 of the "Anti-Magnitsky law," adopted as a result of the amendment by Yekaterina Lakhova /United Russia/ and Yelena Afanasyeva /Liberal Democratic Party/. "The concept of the lawbill was drawn on the strength of the expression of will by 100,000 Russian citizens, who passed their signatures to the State Duma against the ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans," Gudkov underlined.

The authors will offer to review their legislative initiative under accelerated procedure.

The explanatory note to the document which Gudkov placed on his Internet blog, said the proposal to cancel the adoption ban is based on the necessity to protect the rights of orphans to adoption and life in a full-fledged family regardless of citizenship of nationality of the adoptive parents. The authors of the new legislation underscore that the orphans' rights should not depend on political, economic and other conditions of the subjects of international relations."

In February 2012 Vladimir Putin suggested, in a Kommersant newspaper article, introducing "mandatory review of the public initiatives that gather 1000,000 or more signatures in their support on the Internet."

During the president's traditional news conference in December, Novaya Gazeta correspondent Diana Khachatryan said reporters had gathered more than 100,000 signatures on the newspaper's website against lawmakers' initiative to ban the adoption of Russian children by Americans. "I believe the State Duma should consider it," Putin noted. Meanwhile, the adoption ban came into effect on January 1, 2013.

Lawmakers confirmed that they were ready to examine the citizens' petition while acknowledging that the form of possible reaction to the petition was not clear. Head of the committee for constitutional legislation and state development Vladimir Pligin said there was no specific procedural norm for the parliament's reaction to the citizens' petition.

On Tuesday, Pligin informed the lower house about this public initiative at the first plenary meeting of the parliament's spring session.

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