Russian Official Says Adoption Ban Violates Treaties

The warning, which was made by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets in a letter to Mr. Putin last week and became public on Tuesday, quickly widened a split over the measure at the highest levels of the Russian government. Russian lawmakers are pushing the ban as retaliation for a new American law punishing Russian citizens accused of violating human rights.

In her letter, Ms. Golodets said the proposed ban, which has already been approved by the lower house of Parliament, would violate the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which took effect in 1980, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which went into force in 1990. Russia is a party to both agreements, though the United States is not. She also said such a ban would violate Russian federal law.

The letter was first reported by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, and it drew a sharp response from Russia’s commissioner of children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, a longtime advocate of restricting international adoptions.

“Russia will not violate any international legal standards,” Mr. Astakhov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday.

He added, “And we can see that children handed over to the United States are not protected.”

The adoption ban was proposed as a response to the new American law barring Russian citizens accused of human rights abuses from traveling to the United States and from owning real estate or other assets there. Critics of the Russian law say that it will most hurt orphans, who are already suffering in Russia’s deeply troubled child welfare system.

Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said the president had not seen the letter, and Mr. Peskov expressed annoyance at having the government’s internal discussions debated in public. “It is not always pleasant to learn about official correspondence from the media,” he told Russian news agencies.

From the outset, the proposed ban has divided officials at the highest levels of the Russian government. Several senior officials, including the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, who had a personal hand in negotiating the adoption agreement with the United States, have spoken out against it.

At first, lawmakers proposed a bill that would impose sanctions on American judges and others accused of violating the rights of adopted Russian children in the United States. A number of cases involving the abuse or even deaths of adopted Russian children in recent years have generated publicity and outrage in Russia.

The Russian bill was named for Dimitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died of heatstroke in Virginia in 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours. The father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of manslaughter by a judge who ruled that the death was an accident.

Mr. Astakhov, the children’s rights commissioner, on Tuesday reiterated his criticism that international adoptions are overly driven by profit motives. He said that international adoptions in Russia alone are a $1.5 billion business, and that each adoption costs $30,000 to $50,000. The Russian law would bar adoption agencies that work with Americans from operating in Russia. Nearly 1,000 Russian children were adopted by parents from the United States in 2011, more than from any other country.

Russia’s upper house of Parliament, the Federal Assembly, is expected to approve the bill this week, which would send it to Mr. Putin for his signature.

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Russian Soccer Fans Marching Backward to Intolerance

The prominent group of Zenit supporters, known as Landscrona, posted a letter on its Web site on Monday, saying it wanted to preserve the traditional identity of the team by signing only homegrown players or those from Slavic nations like Ukraine and Belarus, from the Baltic nations or from Scandinavia. The club did not have a black player until late summer and has a history of prejudiced behavior by some of its fans.

“Dark-skinned players are all but forced down Zenit’s throat now, which only brings out a negative reaction,” the fan group said, adding that gay players were “unworthy of our great city.”

Antiracism officials said the episode was another embarrassment for Russia as it prepares to host the 2018 World Cup and for Gazprom, the government-controlled natural gas company that owns Zenit St. Petersburg and is a sponsor of the Champions League, Europe’s most important club tournament.

Late Monday night, Zenit’s sporting director, Dietmar Beiersdorfer, rebuked the fan group, saying on the club Web site, “We make our player selections without any limitation regarding origin, religion or skin color.”

Zenit’s Italian manager, Luciano Spalletti, called for inclusiveness and respect of other cultures in an interview with the club’s radio network, saying that “being tolerant means that you fight against any kind of stupidity.”

Despite Zenit’s disavowal of its fan club’s demand to sign only white players, “at some point, this policy has been practiced by the club,” said Piara Powar, the executive director of the London-based FARE network, formerly known as Football Against Racism in Europe.

Zenit was the only top-level Russian club never to include a black player until early September, when it signed the Brazilian forward Hulk and the Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel for a combined $100 million. In late September, according to Russian news accounts, a fake bomb was found in a bag at Zenit’s training site, with a photograph of Hulk and the inscription, “Hulk out!”

The French midfielder Yann M’Vila, who is black, reportedly turned down a transfer to Zenit in August after receiving threats from some of the club’s most extreme supporters, known as ultras, who have a notorious saying, “There’s no black in the colors of Zenit.”

Last year, Zenit was fined about $10,000 after one of its fans offered a banana to Roberto Carlos, the onetime Brazilian great who was finishing his club career in Russia. Later last year, Carlos walked off the field before the final whistle in a match against Zenit after a banana was thrown at him.

In 2008, Zenit’s manager at the time, Dick Advocaat of the Netherlands, said, “I would be happy to sign anyone, but the fans don’t like black players.”

In 2007, Serge Branco, a midfielder from Cameroon playing in the Russian league, said he incurred repeated racial abuse by Zenit fans and added, “Zenit bosses do not do anything about it, which makes me think they are racists, too.”

European soccer has dealt with a number of high-profile instances of racial abuse since last December, including the suspensions of Luis Suárez of Liverpool and John Terry of Chelsea in England’s Premier League. By degree, racism and xenophobia have historically been more virulent in Eastern Europe, with some fans making monkey chants and throwing bananas, and others giving Nazi salutes.

The Russian soccer federation was fined $150,000 at the European Championships last summer after some fans fought with stadium stewards and displayed nationalistic “Russian Empire” flags. Russian fans also clashed with Polish fans in Warsaw and were accused of racially taunting Theodor Gebre Selassie, the lone black player for the Czech Republic.

“People ask me, ‘Are we in crisis in Europe?’ ” Powar of the FARE antiracist organization said in a telephone interview from London. “I don’t think so. There’s not the same focus on racial tribalism as in the past. I think some big gains have been made. But some things we took for granted have been eroded away. It’s been a tough year, a step backward.”

The latest racial behavior by Zenit fans underscores the education of tolerance necessary in Russia ahead of the 2018 World Cup, said Powar, who visited Moscow last week. The Russian soccer federation “understands the problems they face; they seem determined to do what they can,” Powar said. “But in the end, Russia is a very big place. To completely eradicate elements like this is going to be very difficult.”

Some antiracism officials have criticized the muted response by European soccer officials to the latest Zenit incident. UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, has asked Zenit to clarify its position on the signing of players. Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, which has called for zero tolerance of racism, could not be reached for comment. The FIFA Web site did not address the issue Monday or Tuesday.

“Where is the world governing body in its denouncement?” said Lord Herman Ouseley of London, chairman of the antiracist group Kick it Out.

Last week, Ouseley resigned a position with the English soccer federation, saying he thought it was retreating in its fight against racism. Of the demand by Zenit fans, he said from London: “It stands out because it’s gone public. But a lot of people are trying to articulate prejudices in different ways, behind the scenes, with a lot of pressure applied.”

Given the growing diversity on Europe’s elite club teams, adherence to a policy of racial purity would only limit the breadth of Zenit’s player pool and lead to isolation and failure, Powar said.

“Perhaps that is no bad thing,” he said.

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