On January 17, 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the Case of A.H. and Others v. Russia that Russia unlawfully discriminated against American nationals by banning them from adopting Russian children. According to the press release, Russia’s actions violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers the right to respect for private and family life. President Vladimir Putin of Russia signed a bill in December 2012 that included a ban that prevented U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children. The ban was part of a bill drafted in response to the U.S. Magnitsky Act, a law that “imposed sanctions on the Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had exposed alleged large-scale tax fraud involving State officials and subsequently died in custody,” though the introduction of the ban on adoption in particular “was prompted by the death in 2008 of Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler adopted by United States nationals.”