Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended a proposed ban on Americans adopting Russian children.
At a live televised news conference Mr Putin said the bill, backed by Russian MPs on Wednesday, was "appropriate".In US cases involving allegedly mistreated Russian children the authorities refused to let in Russian representatives as observers, he said.
The Russian bill is a response to the US Magnitsky Act, which bars entry to Russian alleged human rights violators.
It follows several cases in which Russian children have apparently been mistreated by US adoptive parents.
Mr Putin said he still needed to read the Russian bill in detail, though he backed it in principle.
The rate of adoption in Russia is low. Some 3,400 Russian children were adopted by foreign families in 2011, nearly a third of them by Americans.
"The State Duma's response may be emotional, but I consider it to be appropriate," Mr Putin said, referring to Russia's lower house.
He called the Magnitsky Act "unfriendly". The act replaced the US Jackson-Vanik amendment, which dated back to the Cold War.
"They have replaced one anti-Soviet, anti-Russian law with another... That is very bad. This, of course, in itself poisons our relations," Mr Putin said.
source: BBC
