MOSCOW – Russia's lower house of parliament is taking up a controversial proposal to ban adoptions of Russian children by Americans.
The State Duma will discuss the proposal Wednesday. It is an amendment to a bill retaliating against a recently passed U.S. law imposing sanctions on Russians considered human rights violators.
Several top Russian officials have spoken out against the amendment or suggested it is an overreaction to the U.S. law.
Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said legislators "must not be ruled by emotion."
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday told the Interfax news agency that the "emotional reaction of the parliamentarians is completely understandable" but "the executive powers take a more restrained line."
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