Thousands gather in Moscow to protest US adoptions ban

Thousands of Russian activists gathered in the center of Moscow on Sunday to hold a protest march against a law banning US nationals from adopting Russian children, RIA Novosti reports.

Co-chairmen of the People’s Freedom Party (Parnas) Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Ryzhkov arrived at the site of the opposition gathering in Strastnoy Boulevard to lead one of the protest march’s columns.

The other column on the other side of the boulevard will be led by Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov.

The ban is part of a wider response by Moscow to the Magnitsky Act, a US law that imposes travel bans and other sanctions on Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses. The law was signed into force by US President Barack Obama late last year.