January 2013 1/2013

Sean Roberts Researcher The Finnish Institute of International Affairs

The Russian adoption ban fits the Putin agenda > The logic of the Dima Yakovlev law is inevitable but short-sighted

By banning US citizens from adopting Russian orphans, the Putin administration is attempting to deflect attention away from corruption issues and utilise anti- American sentiment to discredit opponents. But these latest efforts at manipulating public opinion may have unintended consequences.

In order to make sense of the seem- by the Levada Center in December anti-American sentiment and allows ingly inexplicable adoption ban 2012 showed that just over 20% of an easy association between the that came into force on January 1 respondents opposed the Magnitsky perceived mistreatment of orphans (the so-called ‘Dima Yakovlev law’, Act, but that almost 45% supported in the US and the regime’s domestic named in memory of a Russian US efforts to punish corrupt Russian opponents. orphan who died in 2008 due to the officials. Vladimir Zhirinovksy’s inter- neglect of his US adoptive father), The Dima Yakovlev law is a useful view on the Vesti news channel on it is important to look beyond the way to deflect attention away from December 24 is a typical example. format of Russia-US relations and to the entire issue of corruption at a After singling out the US for its consider the current configuration of time when this should be in the treatment of Russian orphans, he politics within Russia, as well as the public eye. Putin’s firing of Defence moved seamlessly to attack the US- core issue at stake. Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in backed ‘fifth columnist’ Bolotnaya The core issue driving the Dima November 2012 on suspicion of protestors. In short, anti-American Yakovlev law is corruption, not the embezzlement is one of the highest sentiment has become part of the welfare of Russian orphans living in profile graft cases to come to light in regime’s strategy for dealing with the US, and this issue relates square- recent years, questioning the trans- the protest movement, but this ly to the US Magnitsky Act. The parency of Russia’s multi-billion sentiment will be difficult to sustain adoption ban is the Russian response dollar defence spending plans as well if the Magnitsky Act gains saliency as to the Act, signed by Barak Obama as the government’s integrity. an issue, and if the public supports on December 14, which imposes visa The Dima Yakovlev law is also US efforts to tackle corrupt Russian and banking sanctions on Russian expedient in the way it supports officials. officials considered complicit in the Putin administration’s efforts Overall, the Dima Yakovlev law the death of Sergei Magnitsky – an to tackle opponents at home by shares similarities with previous attorney who died in suspicious recasting them as some kind of populist moves, such as Putin’s circumstances in pre-trial detention foreign contagion. The authorities earlier ‘war on oligarchs’ that culmi- in 2009, having levelled serious al- have increasingly sought to link the nated in Mikhail Khodorkovksy’s jail legations of collusion between state unrest following the December 2011 term in 2005. It is little surprise that officials, the police and mafia groups. parliamentary election, including on December 23, just days before A more symmetrical response May’s so-called ‘Bolotnaya protests’, Putin signed the adoption ban, a new by the Russian authorities, such as with a US-backed plot to destabilise investigative film on the life of exiled imposing like-for-like sanctions the country. This narrative is clearly oligarch Boris Berezovsky appeared on those US officials involved in shown in the two ‘Anatomy of a on the state-owned Rossiya 1 chan- drawing up the Magnitsky Act, could Protest’ documentaries aired on the nel. However, unlike oligarchs, the easily prove counter-productive state-controlled NTV channel in issue of orphans is more divisive, and for Putin’s domestic approval March and October 2012. The Dima this is where the Putin administra- ratings. An opinion poll conducted Yakovlev law serves to crank up tion appears to have miscalculated. 2

Finnish Institute of One poll conducted by the Public out of this emotive issue. On January International Affairs Opinion Foundation (FOM) shows 13, thousands of demonstrators took Kruunuvuorenkatu 4 that no more than 56% of respond- to the streets of Moscow in a so- PL 400 ents support the adoption ban. called ‘march against scoundrels’ to 00161 Helsinki Although this level of support should express their dismay at the adoption not be underestimated, especially in ban, in what was a surprisingly well- Telephone the context of Putin’s falling ap- attended event. +358 (0)9 432 7000 proval ratings, this issue does not At a time when the protest have overwhelming support. atmosphere in the country appeared Fax The problem with the Dima to be dissipating, and when the +358 (0)9 432 7799 Yakovlev law is that the facts under- Putin administration was hoping to mine the claims being made. Most move on from the travails of 2012, www.f iia.f i Russians have a good idea of the poor this latest restrictive law may have state of child welfare in the country unwittingly presented the opposi- and information on the relative fate tion with a fresh rallying call. of orphans in Russia and the US is not difficult to find. For example, figures from the Ministry of Education and Science for the last available year (2011) show 181 deaths among children placed in care homes within the Russian Federation. According to US State Department statistics, 45,112 Russian children have been adopted by US citizens since 1999, including a significant number of handicapped children. To date, the Russian authorities have highlighted a total of 19 deaths among Russian

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs is an adoptees in the US. independent research institute that produces high-level While the Dima Yakovlev law is research to support political decision-making and not quite the irrational reaction that public debate both nationally and internationally. it appears to be at first sight, the

The Institute undertakes quality control in editing Putin administration has been short- publications but the responsibility for the views sighted in failing to see the conse- expressed ultimately rests with the authors. quences of making political capital