, Columnist
Russian Orphans Suffer for Officials’ Sins
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If Russian lawmakers have their way, the best intentions of a U.S. investor could soon result in tragedy for thousands of Russian orphans and the U.S. families who would adopt them.
In recent weeks, Russia’s parliament has been grasping for a response to the Magnitsky Act, a bill lobbied for heavily by U.S. investor Bill Browder and signed into law last week by President Barack Obama. The law replaces Cold War-era trade restrictions with a mechanism denying entry to the U.S. for Russian officials involved in human-rights violations -- and specifically in the 2009 jail death of 37-year-old Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who had been defending the interests of the Hermitage Fund, an investment fund run by Browder.