The Russian Federation Council, the upper house of Parliament, on Wednesday passed a law banning access to surrogacy for foreign citizens in the country.
The senators who have promoted the measure have pointed out that, in this way, it puts an end to «crimes against minors» who, having foreign parents are not eligible for Russian citizenship despite having been born in the territory through the use of surrogacy.
In this regard, the legislation stipulates that only Russian citizens may act as surrogate mothers in the territory. The prohibition does not apply in cases when the foreigner in question is married to a Russian citizen.
«This will prevent discrimination of rights of Russian citizens because they are married to foreigners,» explained Vasily Piskarev, one of the initiators of the initiative. The law indicates that from now on minors must necessarily obtain Russian citizenship if they were born in Russia, even if they were born through surrogacy, since the new regulation implies that the biological mother must be Russian and that one of the parents must also be Russian.
The law does not prevent the parents from moving with the child to another country of residence and seeks, according to the text, «to protect Russian minors». This measure will allow the competent Russian authorities to exercise the necessary control over the departure of these minors from the country.
