MOSCOW, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Many senior Russian officials were against a ban on U.S. citizens adopting Russian orphans, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Wednesday.
"Everything must be done to solve the children's problems in practice, without such tough laws," Dvorkovich told a meeting with students at the Moscow Steel Institute.
Russia enacted the so-called Anti-Magnitsky law, also dubbed the Dima Yakovlev Act, on Jan. 1. It bans U.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans in a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. Magnitsky Act passed in December.
The U.S. act introduced a visa blacklist of Russian officials allegedly linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison in 2009.
According to Dvorkovich, a lot of high-ranking officials were against the Russian ban "at least in the form it was passed," but since the law had been passed, it must be implemented.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Science and Education Minister Dmitry Livanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had publicly criticized the ban, he noted.
"If people don't like lawmakers' work, it means these lawmakers will not be re-elected during the next election," Dvorkovich said.
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