Putin signs antiadoption law, throwing pending adoptions into confusion (+video)
(Read article summary)About 1,000 Russian children were adopted by US families in 2011, and around 50 such adoptions are pending.
Moscow
President Vladimir Putin signed the Dima Yakovlev Act into law Friday, banning all adoptions of Russian orphans by US citizens as of Jan. 1 and throwing dozens of currently ongoing adoptions into confusion.
The mood among workers in the almost 40 Russia-accredited adoption agencies, which have survived repeated bouts of political tensions and ever-tightening regulations over the years, was near despair Friday.
"We have two cases of adoption in court and we're just asking ourselves the same question, what will be next?" says Lyudmila Babich, of the Cold Spring, New York-based Happy Families Center.
"We have no text of this law, nor any explanations of what's supposed to happen now. So, we're waiting," she says.
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