(Vatican Radio)Pro-Kremlin activists have rallied in central Moscow to demand that
the government extends a ban on American families adopting Russian children to all
foreign nationals.
Saturday's protest of up to 20,000 people came a day after
authorities in the U.S. State of Texas said the death in January of 3-year-old Max
Shatto, was "an accident."
Protesters also demanded his brother to be returned
to Russia.
The Russian Mothers movement said it was time for a “more thorough
investigation” into the death of the boy, who was born Maksim Kuzmin in Russia.
Russian
authorities accuse the child's adoptive mother of drugging and "murdering" him, but
Texas officials wonder how Moscow can claim to know the exact details of the case
from such a distance.
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Russian officials have
cited the boy's death to dismiss criticism of Moscow's politically charged ban on
U.S. adoptions.
The recently approved law came after new U.S. legislation
which punishes Russian officials accused of human rights violations, including those
linked to the murder of an anti-corruption lawyer in 2009.
Sanctions include
visa bans and asset freezes.
Russia's anti-adoption law has led to emotional
reactions from at least one American couple. Speaking on U.S.television, Robert Summers
pleaded to President Vladimir Purtin to allow their own and other adoptions to go
ahead.
"I cannot put into words, how my wife and I feel right now," he said,
with tears in his eyes, his voice trembling.
ASKING COMPASSION
"And
we ask President Putin: 'Please consider alternate means, but don't let these children
suffer. Please, that's all we ask," he cried.
The couple prayed and went
to Russia where they were able to pick up their child, Preston, from a Russian orphanage
because a judge gave permission before the law came into force, explained Kim Summers
in a later interview with CBS News television.
"Robert and I looked at each
other and we said: 'It's over, it's over'," she recalled.
"And I can't even
tell you the relieve and how related we are. I completely understand when a mother
says that she takes one look at her newborn child and instantly is in love with that
child," Kim Summers explained.
But the fate of other children remains
uncertain.
HORRIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES
While President Putin promotes
larger families, rights groups say many children remain in often horrific circumstances
in orphanages across Russia.
That reality prompted Americans to adopt more
than 60.000 Russian children over the last two decades.
Russia's opposition
earlier held protests against the adoption ban. On Saturday Russian opposition activists
also marched in defense of social and political rights.
That Moscow rally was
organized by protest leader Sergei Udaltsov who is under house arrest on controversial
charges of plotting "mass disorder" and conspiring to overthrow President Putin.