My wife and I attempted to adopt an infant when we were in our thirties and forties. As it turned out, it was a particularly inopportune time to do so. We scoured the United States and drew a blank. We found a real potential in Colombia, but that South American country closed its doors on Americans so far as adoptions were concerned about that time. As a final desperate consideration, we began looking into adoptions of Russian babies.

Good hearted Americans had been adopting Russian orphan babies since shortly after the collapse of the USSR. The Russian government was not quite so good hearted; it was the gullible Americans as a way to rid Russia of its crippled, deformed, and gravely ill children who were never going to be able to receive treatment in the former countries of the USSR. In fact, the Americans were fully aware of the condition of the children they were willing to pay small fortunes to adopt, to bring to the United States, and to provide the great costs of their care.

Unfortunately, for us and for the other Americans who were deeply committed to the Russian adoption process, The Dima Yakovlev Law [ Precisely, the Dima Yakovlev Bill, Dima Yakovlev Act, anti-Magnitsky law, Federal law of Russian Federation no. 272-FZ of 2012-12-28] was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 28, 2012 and took effect on January 1, 2013. Every American involved was appalled, and many had simply been robbed of the money they had paid into the Russian adoption system—a corrupt enterprise from top to bottom.

 

At first, I thought it was plain and simple an anti-American move, part of the lingering Cold War. I looked into it further and read an explanation by the Russian government. That explanation related to a genuine Russian criminal courts action and an actual incident. In the State Duma and the Russian public, the law was informally named after Dmitry “Dima” Yakovlev, a Russian toddler who was adopted by a single man, Miles Harrison, of Purcellville, Virginia. The little boy was renamed Chase Harrison when he arrived in the United States. In July 2008, less than three months after he arrived in America, Dima/Chase died of heat exhaustion while he was strapped into his adoptive father’s car. He had been left alone for nine hours after his father forgot to take him to his daycare service.

Harrison was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter by a Circuit Court judge in January, 2009. The case became national news in Russia, highlighting and exaggerating abuse cases involving Russian children adopted by American parents. Russian federal prosecutors–pushed by the Putin government–opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident. The resulting law was broader on scope than just that regarding Dima. Formally, it was known as On Sanctions for Individuals Violating Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens of the Russian Federation. Among several defined sanctions, was a ban against United States citizens from adopting Russian children.

 

The Russian Orthodox Church—whose putative head is Vladimir Putin—actively supported the law. A Church spokesman stated that the orphans adopted by American citizens “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. According to the independent Moscow Times, the ban became well known and increasingly popular among the Russian public.

I admit to having reluctantly agreed with the rational; American pedophiles should not be granted the privileges of adoption, and the Russian Federation had the right to protect its most defenseless citizens. Yes, it did seem extreme to deny all those extremely needy orphans the homes in which they could grow and flourish; and, more importantly in the short run, to receive the critical medical care they needed which only the more advanced West could provide.

I was both ignorant and naive, I came to learn relatively recently. Like most other people in the world, I overlooked the part of the law called the “anti-Magnitsky Act”. It became clear that I was wrong.

 

A good friend of mine, a serious history buff, introduced me to a nonfiction book, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder, Adam Grupper, et al. which brought the horrifying true story of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky against the Russian government to vivid and memorable knowledge, and changed my mind completely. The book deals with more than the unfortunate Sergei; it exposes the official corruption, murderous gang-style methods of the oligarchs, and the head of it all, Vladimir Putin. Suffice it to say that the evidence is overwhelming, and the book is fascinating. For the purposes of this article, the Magnitsky case and one of the retaliations by the Putin government which resulted in the true story of why the Russians came to prohibit Americans from adopting their unfortunate and needy orphans.

 

First, Sergei Leonidovich [1979-2009], the man:

He was an extraordinary thirty-seven-year-old man born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1972. He and his family emigrated to Southern Russia when he was nine. He was a brilliant tax attorney and auditor employed by the Moscow firm of Firestone Duncan. Sergei was married and the father of two children. Among his accomplishments was that he trained other auditors and attorneys. His most remarkable qualities of honesty and great courage came for his love and belief in the law on an absolute scale.

While employed by the Hermitage Foundation headed by Bill Browder, he exposed a high-level police, oligarch, and Russian government, tax evasion scandal. He touched a nerve among those officials, was arrested, handcuffed, tortured in jail, and died of a beating, he received within a few hours of his death while in a hospital awaiting critical surgery for his long-neglected illnesses. To add absurdity to the already unconscionable Russian governmental actions, the officers he testified against were put in control of the investigation of their $249 million theft.

Now, Sergei, the legend, the international cause célèbre case:

His American born, expatriate, British employer, Bill Browder, and his friends and family begged him to escape from Russia, but he refused because he had faith in the rule of law—even in Russia—and was determined to bring justice to the corruption ridden government, its police and justice system lackies, its bankers, and the Russian Mafia.

William Felix “Bill” Browder proved to be a most remarkable defender for his friend, Sergei. He was driven from the country, had to remove all his assets from Russia, and determined a new career as the man to save Sergei, and his reputation, after he was murdered. That crusade led to a concerted media campaign, speeches to the largest economic groups in the world and to the parliaments in dozens of countries, and finally to two dramatic achievements. The first was to fight for a bill in the United States Congress and to President Obama to pass the historical Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, In December, 2012, the United States passed the  law which imposed visa sanctions and asset freezes on those involved in Sergei’s arrest, torture, and death, as well as other gross human rights abusers. Subsequently, the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act broadening the scope of Magnitsky. So far, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned 34 Russia nationals under the US Magnitsky Act, including 28 who played a role in the Magnitsky case, and 6 persons involved in other gross human rights abuses in Russia.

The second great achievement that Sergei’s death struck a chord that was heard around the world. People everywhere–both in Russia and abroad–were outraged and moved to action. In July, 2012, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE] passed–by an overwhelming majority–a resolution calling on all OSCE member states to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on people who are responsible for the false arrest, torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky, and the corruption he had uncovered. On January 28, 2014, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] passed a resolution and report entitled, Refusing impunity for the killers of Sergei Magnitsky, which stated the presence of a massive cover-up involving senior Russian officials in the government, judiciary, and the police. The resolution called on the Russian authorities to stop the persecution of Sergei Magnitsky’s family and Hermitage staff and lawyers and recommended that member states follow the US by adopting visa sanctions and asset freezes should the Russian authorities fail to respond adequately.

 

The Reprisals:

1. Bill Browder’s personal Russian visa was permanently denied. The Russian government made every effort nationally and internationally to obtain Browder’s and The Hermitage assets and failed.
2. Russia succeeded in obtaining a Red Notice from INTERPOL to have Browder arrested, detained and sent to Russia whenever he was apprehended crossing an international border. The Notice was repealed in response to a strong multi-nation condemnation and protest.
3. In February 2012, the Russian police announced their intention to resubmit charges of tax evasion against Magnitsky for a second trial. The Russian press pointed out that this was the first posthumous trial in Russia’s history. After 2014, the version officially promoted in Russia is that Bill Browder’s Hermitage Capital was responsible for tax fraud and that Magnitsky died as result of his conspiracy involving Alexey Navalny, Magnitsky was convicted.
4. Russian President Putin announced that he will sign legislation prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by Americans. His stated reason related to protecting Russian orphans from American pedophiles. His real reason was to retaliate against the obstinate Americans who insisted on justice for Sergei Magnitsky. The American government saw it as an admission that Russia cannot take care of its own children, UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, and only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child. The United States was the most common destination for adopted Russian children, with more than 60,000 such adoptions in the last 20 years,
5. After the Trump-Putin Helsinki meeting, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office released the names of US citizens it wants to question as supposed associates of Browder. The list highlighting Browder and the proponents of the Magnitski Act such as the Obama White House and State Department, the Bush Administration, and notably, Kyle Parker, who–as the lead Russia staffer at the commission–wrote the bill that subsequently became the Magnitsky Act. leaves no doubt as to the nature of the “crime.”
6. Investigation of former US officials sought by the Kremlin for “illegal activities,” including a US ambassador to Russia.
7. Putin proposed that the United States turn over a US National Security Agency employee, a CIA agent, and several State Department officials.
8. Moscow has reacted to Britain sanctioning 25 Russian nationals. The Kremlin said it was an “unfriendly” step and would be met with a “retaliatory response.” The Kremlin stated that it would issue a “retaliatory response” to fresh British sanctions against Russian officials and made the same threat to Germany when it began proceedings to prevent 25 Russians from entering the country.

 

It is a matter of some sadness that we continue to learn of persistence of the Cold War, of the continuing cruelties and kleptocratic policies of the Russian Federation; but on a personal level, I truly grieve for the Russian orphans and the decent potential adoptive parents who could assist or save them.

-Carl Douglass aka Doug Nielson

 

I hope that my story will help you understand the methods of Russian operatives in Washington and how they use U.S. enablers to achieve major foreign policy goals without disclosing those interests. I also hope that this story and others like it may lead to a change in the FARA enforcement regime in the future.

-Bill Browder