The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg did not
put into the agenda the address to the Federation Council
calling the latter to reject the so-called Dima Yakovlev law
(the "orphans law"). The address was initiated by
ten members of the Legislative Assembly, including the YABLOKO
faction. An appeal from Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the YABLOKO
faction, was distributed among deputies before the plenary
session. Here comes the complete text of the appeal.
Dear citizens of St.Petersburg, dear deputies,
The bill prohibiting adoption of Russian orphans by U.S.
citizens is in the final stage of consideration [by the parliament].
It has to pass only the Federation Council and signing by
the President.
A number of public and government officials: Sergey Lavrov,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmitry Livanov, Minister of Education,
Anton Siluanov, Russian Finance Minister, Vadim Tulpanov,
member of the Federation Council of Russia, and many other
spoke against the bill. 100,000 signatures of people demanding
from the Russian authorities to abandon such a “cannibalistic”
bill were collected within a week.
Why so many people are outraged?
Why even the most devoted members of the Cabinet dared to
speak against the law?
Because the law is not simply political blackmailing, it
is immense government’s and human meanness against defenseless
orphans.
The adopted law envisages that thousands of little abandoned
and often sick Russian children will be deprived of the opportunity
to live like a human beings simply because some officials
(who, by the way, because of their theft make these kids destitute)
had been offended or "insulted" by the wording of
the American [Magnitsky] law.
The provocative nature of such a decision is obvious. Exactly
six months ago the SAME MPs also voted almost unanimously
for the agreement with the United States on the adoption of
children. By this time, Dima Yakovlev had been dead for four
years already, and it suited them all.
And now protecting their foreign accounts, 420 deputies and
their hosts staged a “hooligans’ brawl” with U.S. Congressmen
on "what have you said? and who are you to tell me such
things?"
Protecting their overseas shopping [“rights”] the corrupt
officials assure us that the Magnitsky law is against Russia.
It is not true.
First, the U.S. Act can be classified as “a moralizing guidance”,
this is a declaration, it does not bring anything new into
practices.
Second, those responsible for the deaths of people in Russian
prisons are not Russia, they are criminals (as, for example,
a sadist maniac Chikatilo was not Russia) and an indication
from abroad that there are such people in Russia is not a
and can not be an insult to Russia.
But sanctions against Russian orphans, imposed by the State
Duma, which is a disgusting, cruel, unfair and cowardly decision
taken unanimously in a pseudo-patriotic frenzy, a "shopping
revenge for the reproach", inflicting the maximum possible
damage to its own citizens, in this case to the desolate and
defenseless children whom the bureaucratic state considers
its property, as serfs, as inanimate objects, are certainly
a criminal and anti-Russian action.
Even according to [Russia’s Ombudsman] Pavel Astakhov, 19
Russian children adopted by American parents were killed in
the US for the past ten years. However, only since the collapse
of the USSR Americans adopted about 100,000 Russian children.
For comparison, according to the RIA Novosti data, as of 2006,
1220 children adopted by Russian citizens were killed in Russia
in the 15 years from the collapse of the USSR. According to
the data from the official website of the Investigative Committee
of the Russian Federation, dozens of cases of murder of children
(including infants) by their own parents have been documented
in Russia only for 2012. In St. Petersburg, in 2011 alone,
113 children were adopted by U.S. citizens, and 215 by citizens
of the Russian Federation.
Those who will keep silent today thus will vote for the sanctions
not against Americans, but against the most defenseless of
Russian citizens. And it will lie at their doors forever.
Dear Citizens! The adoption of this law is a question of
ethics, when all the speculations and arguments, fears and
doubts have to pale into insignificance because to accept
it means ceasing being a human.
I think that after all the protests the bill will be signed
in a non-working form and adoptions will continue, but I think
it our duty to call you to show normal human emotions, stop
being afraid, openly demonstrate your categorical rejection
of political meanness and demand from the President and the
upper house of the parliament to abolish the idea of involving
children into disgraceful bargaining.
Grigory Yavlinsky,
YABLOKO
See also:
Human
Rights
Protesters
against the Anti-Magnitsky Law by the Federation Council face
huge fines and compulsory community service works. Press
Release, December 26, 2012.
Boris
Vishnevsky: Have you voted for "anyone" but the
ruling party? Now get the consequences.Boris
Vishnevsky's blog at the Ekho Moskvi web-site, December 22,
2012.
Alexander
Shishlov: The ban on adoption of Russian children by US citizens
is immoral. RIA Novosti, December 24, 2012.
Sanctions
against Russian orphans. Grigory Yavlinsky's
Live Journal, December 19, 2012.
State
Duma’s revenge on the US affects only Russian orphans.
Statement by YABLOKO Chairman, December 18,
2012.
|
