U.S. can't fathom Russian ban on child adoptions by Americans - diplomat

WASHINGTON. Jan 15 (Interfax) - The U.S. administration cannot fathom Russia's recent ban on the adoption of underage Russians by Americans but does not see it as a serious threat to U.S.-Russian relations in general, according to a senior American diplomat.

Jake Sullivan, director of the State Department's Policy Planning Office, said during an online conference that neither he personally nor the administration could see the reason for a policy that leaves children in such difficult circumstances.

The ban is one of the measures prescribed by a Russian law that is designed as retaliation for the U.S. draft Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.

Sullivan said the U.S. administration had been anxious at developments in American-Russian relations sparked by the United States' Magnitsky Act a few months ago, and especially at the adoptions ban. He said the ban hits at families that want to give loving homes to children who could otherwise remain orphans.

Sullivan was answering a question from a Russian reporter whether the Magnitsky Act and the Russian retaliatory law spelled an end to the policy of "resetting" U.S.-Russian relations.

The diplomat said the spat did not mean that other fundamental areas for cooperation were shut off.

However, the two countries should jointly deal with issues such as the Iranian nuclear program, the war in Afghanistan and economic reverberations of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, he said, and the row over the Magnitsky Act distracts the United States and Russia from such work.

Sullivan said the United States would stick to its principles but seek to iron out differences with Russia and further diversify its cooperation with the country.

as

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)