Blog post by Alexander Goncharenko, 08/11/2013

According to the information from the Rosbalt news agency with a reference to the Social Policy Committee of St. Petersburg, 33 orphans from St.Petersburg who have lost their prospective adoptive parents due to coming into force of the so-called Dima Yakovlev law [prohibiting adoption of Russian orphans by foreigners], only one such orphan was adopted by Russian nationals. All of these children, before coming into force of the Federal Law No 272- FZ “On Measures Against Persons Involved in Abuse of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of Russian Citizens” prohibiting adoptions by US citizens of Russian children, had already had prospective parents – Americans. However, after January 1, these children could not go to the foster families and stayed in their motherland, so we have such a sad result.

YABLOKO party activists participating in a picket in Barnaul against the “cannibals’” law

This “cannibals’” law as it was called by the people, was voted for almost unanimously (400 State Duma deputies for the law, four against and two abstained) by all the State Duma factions headed by their leaders Vladimir Vasilyev [from United Russia], Gennady Zyuganov [from the CPRF], Vladimir Zhirinovsky [LDPR] and Sergei Mironov [Just Russia].

Let me remind you that the law was supported by United Russia’s 230 deputies out of its 231 deputies present at the voting, all 83 deputies from the Communist Party, 32 deputies out of 37 participating in the voting from the Just Russia faction and all the 55 deputies from Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s LDPR. All the seven deputies from Altai (Sergei Neverov, Alexander Prokopyev and Nikolai Gerasimenko – from United Russia, Mikhail Zapolyev and Sergei Yurchenko from the Communist Party, Alexander Teren from Just Russia and Vladimir Semyonov from LDPR), voted for the law.

I think that Vladimir Putin apparently as a gesture of gratitude for such MPs unanimous voting raises their salary from the “modest” 160,000 roubles per month (approx Euro 4,000) to almost 254,000 roubles (approx. Euro 6,350).

After reading these two pieces of information, a quote from a literary character came up into my mind: “It’s simply a shame!”

The author is human rights activist and Chairman of the Altai regional branch of the YABLOKO party.