MOSCOW, February 10 (RAPSI) – Russian ambassador in the United States of America Sergey Kislyak has said that ban on adoption of Russian children for U.S. citizens may be lifted if the United States would provide safety guarantees for the children, Vedomosti newspaper reported on Friday.

“If you ask me whether situation may be fixed in the future, then, perhaps it may be. But we will follow the situation closely, looking for safety guarantees of our children,” the newspaper quoted Kislyak as having said.

The ambassador noted that agreement between Russia and the United States did not work in practice. Kislyak argued that sometimes when Russian side required to accumulate information regarding children left for the U.S., who are still Russian citizens, the United States’ federal government refused to help saying that it is not in competence to do so.

Kislyak added that he does not see the situation changing in near future.

The adoption ban is justified by the deaths of Russian-born children adopted by American parents, according to Russian lawmakers. The law prohibiting U.S. nationals to adopt Russian-born children is named after Dima Yakovlev, a boy who died after his adoptive father Michael Harrison left him locked in a sweltering car. Harrison was later acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.

The law was signed by President Vladimir Putin in late 2012 and came into force in January 2013.