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Putin Evasive on Support of U.S. Adoption Ban Putin Evasive on Banning Adoptions by Americans
(about 14 hours later)
MOSCOW — At a much-anticipated news conference on Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin skirted the question of whether he would support a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, which was approved by Russian parliamentarians but requires his signature to become law. MOSCOW — He seemed to wince a bit as he sauntered on stage — a twinge no doubt from a lingering back injury — but as he took his seat before scores of cameras in a hall packed with more than 1,000 journalists on Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin was clearly in his element: under the bright lights, jaunty and confident, arriving to theme music befitting an action hero.
Mr. Putin said he would have to read the text of the amendment before making a final decision, and noted that most American adoptive parents are “honest and decent people.” But this virtuoso performance was nearly upstaged by an issue that emerged only in the last few days: a proposed ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, as part of a measure retaliating against the United States for a new law that will punish Russian citizens accused of violating human rights. Mr. Putin was pressed repeatedly for his view — eight times in all — and each time he skirted the question.
However, he lashed out angrily at American officials, saying they had allowed child abuse to go unpunished and blocked Russia’s efforts to monitor adjudication of such cases. When it first came up, he gave an exaggerated shrug, palms turned upward, as if to say, “Bring it on.” By the last one, he was snapping back, short of patience, visibly annoyed.
“This is about the attitude of American officials in situations involving the violation of children’s rights,” he said, after a Russian journalist criticized the proposed ban. “Do you consider this normal? You like this? What are you, a sadomasochist? There is no need to humiliate the country! We do not forbid adoption by foreigners in general. There are other countries besides the United States.” Over and over, Mr. Putin said he needed time to read the text of the legislation before making a decision. But the text of the ban is just two simple sentences, and it was clear that Mr. Putin was buying time to contemplate what would be the most potent, anti-American action yet in his new term. This year, there have already been several setbacks in bilateral relations, including his ousting of the United States Agency for International Development.
Mr. Putin criticized a law signed by President Obama last week that seeks to punish Russian citizens who are accused of violating human rights and which served as the spur for the proposed adoption ban. He said the American initiative had been put forward by officials reluctant to part with cold-war-era prejudices. “The talk here is not about the ban on adoption to all foreigners. The talk is about Americans who want to adopt children,” he said, adding, “I am simply not ready to answer you now.”
“They just cannot do without it,” he said. “They are trying to stay in the past. This is very bad, and it poisons our relations.” In other respects, this was the cocksure Mr. Putin of 10 years ago. As his mostly adoring audience settled in, Mr. Putin, who has seemed subdued at times since beginning a third term as president in May, appeared eager to joust. And he did — for four and a half hours — on virtually any subject: crop subsidies for sugar beet farmers and housing for miners, political relations with Georgia, economic ties with China, fishing restrictions in the Volga River delta.
He went on to question Americans’ moral authority to challenge Russia’s human rights record. The American law, the so-called Magnitsky Act, is named for Sergei L. Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after trying to expose a huge government tax fraud and later died in prison, in 2009. After months of aggressive steps to squash political dissent and curtail what he views as undue political influence by outsiders, he seemed to relish every chance to take jabs at the United States, especially over its policies in the Middle East and on human rights.
“What are our partners in the United States worried about? About human rights in our prisons?” Mr. Putin said. “But they themselves have many problems. They hold people in their prisons for years before they accused of any crime. They have legalized torture inside their own country. They would have eaten us alive a long time ago if we had something similar in our country!” He fielded dozens of questions, on topics like a continuing national debate over adopting daylight saving time, taxes, pensions and Russia’s position on the war in Syria. After each reply, journalists clamored for a chance to ask a question, waving signs and flags, scarves, even a red balloon to get noticed.
If Mr. Putin allows the adoption bill to go forward, it will be the most forceful anti-American action of his new term, undoing a bilateral agreement on international adoptions that was ratified just this year and crushing the aspirations of thousands of Americans hoping to adopt Russian orphans. In an unusual split within the government, senior officials had spoken out against the ban, including some, like the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, who are harsh critics of United States policy. At one point, discussing the French actor Gérard Depardieu’s decision to renounce his French citizenship, Mr. Putin warmly invited him to live in Russia. “If Gérard really wants to have a residency permit for Russia or a Russian passport,” Mr. Putin said, “we can consider this issue resolved.”
The bill still faces two more legislative votes, and even before he decides to sign or veto it, Mr. Putin is likely to have huge sway over the bill’s final form when it emerges from Parliament. Throughout the day, Mr. Putin basked in the fawning adulation of journalists visiting the capital from virtually every provincial corner of Russia. Near the end of the news conference, he paused to write a personal note extending birthday wishes to a reporter’s daughter.
The State Department said it would not speculate about what the final bill might look like but a spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, took note of prior cooperation. But in a series of unusually sharp challenges, he was repeatedly forced back to the issue of the proposed adoption ban and pressed to say if he would support it.
“We have worked hard with Russia to address past problems through our new adoption agreement, which the Duma has approved,” Ms. Nuland said. “Each year, thousands of children find loving, nurturing homes through intercountry adoptions, and the lives of thousands of American families have been enriched by welcoming Russian orphans into their homes.” Russian officials, including Mr. Putin, have promised a forceful response to the Magnitsky Act, which requires the administration to assemble a list of Russian citizens accused of abusing human rights, including officials involved in Mr. Magnitsky’s case, and to bar them from traveling to the United States and from owning real estate or other assets there. Mr. Putin repeatedly criticized the new American law — the Magnitsky Act — as a provocation, and said Russia had no choice but to retaliate. “This is very bad and it poisons our relations,” he said.
But they have struggled to find a response that seems reciprocal and proportional, turning to the idea of punishing Americans linked to adjudication of abuse cases involving children adopted from Russia. The Russian bill was initially written to impose sanctions on American judges believed to have treated such cases leniently. It was named after Dmitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died of heatstroke in Virginia in July 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a car for nine hours. Mr. Putin said the United States was failing to live up to an agreement ratified earlier this year, by not allowing Russian officials to get involved in abuse cases involving adopted Russian children, even as observers. And he lashed out at one reporter who challenged him.
Mr. Putin did not give a precise timeline for his decision. Experts on international adoption said uncertainty could prove nearly as damaging as a ban because it would discourage potential adoptive parents from considering children in Russia out of fear that they would invest time, money and emotion only to find their plans blocked by a policy change. “This is unacceptable,” he said. “Do you find it normal? Do you like it? Are you a sadomasochist?” At other times, Mr. Putin acknowledged that most adoptive parents from America are “kind and decent people.”
At several points, he said legal experts would have to review the proposed ban to see if it could be enacted given the agreement with the United States on adoptions. He also repeatedly rejected assertions that the ban would most hurt Russian orphans because he said it would apply only to the United States.
According to the Russian government, there were 956 Russian children adopted by families from the United States in 2011 — the most of any country. Italy was next with 798 followed by Spain with 685.
Mr. Putin did not cite those statistics, but he began his news conference rattling off an array of others to illustrate Russia’s recent successes. Economic output is growing stronger than in the United States or Europe, he said. Unemployment is lower. Average salaries are up. Reserve funds are flush. The birthrate is climbing.
One reporter asked him about the jailed former billionaire, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, whose imprisonment has been condemned as politically motivated. A court on Thursday reduced Mr. Khodorkovsky’s sentence so he may be released two years early, in 2014. Mr. Putin said the issue should not be politicized. Then, archly, he noted that at some point Mr. Khodorkovsky would be free. “May God give him health,” he said.

Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth contributed reporting.