Putin Bans American Families from Adopting Russian Orphans

Homeless Russian street children

Church official implies that Russian children adopted by foreigners won't be able to enter heaven.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial bill that will ban American families from adopting Russian children. Reuters reports that the measure, which will take effect tomorrow (January 1), is "retaliation for a new U.S. human rights law that [Putin] says is poisoning relations."

Americans adopted 1,000 Russian children in 2011 and an estimated 50 adoptions are currently pending, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The Russian Orthodox Church supports the ban, with one of its leaders, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for the Cooperation of Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate, implying that Russian children adopted by Americans (or other foreigners) would not be able to enter heaven. "“They won’t get a truly Christian upbringing and that means falling away from the church and from the path to eternal life, in God’s kingdom," Chaplin told Interfax, a Russian state news agency. Read more

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