, Russian President Vladimir Putin today signed a law "that bans Americans from adopting Russian children and imposes other measures in retaliation for new U.S. legislation meant to punish Russian human rights abusers," .
Even though the Russian leader is following through on something he promised to do, the news is still a blow to "hundreds of Americans enmeshed in the costly, complicated adoption process," . For them, the impact is "deeply personal."
"I'm a little numb," said Maria Drewinsky, a massage therapist from Sea Cliff, N.Y., tells the Times. She and her husband are "in the final stages of adopting a 5-year-old boy named Alyosha. [They] have flown twice to visit him, and they speak to him weekly on the telephone. 'We have clothes and a bedroom all set up for him, and we talk about him all the time as our son,' " Drewinsky said.
, NPR's Michele Kelemen reported that Lauren Koch, of the National Council for Adoption estimates there are about 1,500 American families now in the process of adopting from Russia. Forty-six of them had already been matched with a child, Michele said.
, NPR's Corey Flintoff said it's likely hard for many in America "to fathom why Russia's leaders seem willing to take such a drastic and potentially unpopular step."
According to Corey, "Masha Lipman, of the Moscow Carnegie Center, says the answer has its roots in resentment of the fact that Russia, once on a par with America in terms of power, has now been relegated to second-class status. Lipman says that makes it easy for the government to resort to anti-American rhetoric when it feels threatened, especially by the wave of anti-government protest that erupted in major cities last winter. In that atmosphere, she says, the U.S. legislation known as the Magnitsky Act was seen as a humiliating interference in Russia's domestic affairs."
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