The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, on Friday approved a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of the United States, dpa reported. The bill was introduced in reaction to the US Magnitsky Act, named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was detained and died in 2009 in a Moscow jail while investigating corruption in the country's Interior Ministry. The US law seeks to sanction Russian officials suspected of involvement in human rights violations. The vote in the Duma on the third and final reading of the bill was nearly unanimous, according to the Interfax news agency, even though some government members and rights activists had spoken out against the measure. The 450-seat Duma, dominated by the ruling United Russia party, voted 420 in favour of the bill. -- SPA
