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Getting started with international adoption international.adoption.com
Adoption Russia is Seeking to Regulate and Improve the Complicated International Adoption Process
40,000 Russian Adoptees
in America
There are many reasons why adopted Soviet children. When
foreigners adopt Russian the Iron Curtain finally came
children. And while readers of down in 1991, foreign adop-
this newspaper may easily see tions skyrocketed. Russia re-
why, these reasons sometimes vealed to the world that it was
baffle Russians. Some in an economic crisis, with
Russians were suspicious wages and pensions suspend-
even of Gerhard Schroeder, ed for months. Children and
the former German chancellor, the elderly were the hardest hit,
when he adopted two orphans and orphans were in the worst
from St. Petersburg. plight of all.
The Education Ministry autho-
SVETLANA SOROKINA
rized the foreign adoption of dis-
MOSCOW abled orphans. This was a
token qualification as adverse
Every drama that involves Rus- conditions meant that many
sian children adopted abroad children in orphanages suf-
arouses a storm of emotion in fered, if not from disease, then
their former country. Fourteen from hereditary health prob-
Russian children have been lems or repressed develop-
driven to death or killed by their ment. Foreigners, for their part,
foreign adoptive parents in the often adopted delicate children,
last 15 years. Many think they the most miserable of all.
were adopted with evil inten-
tions and would have been At that time, I met an
safer even in an orphanage in American couple from
BORIS BABANOV_RIA NOVOSTI
their homeland. This is under- Connecticut. They had just
standable. Americans or West- completed the adoption
ern Europeans would be equal- formalities to take home
About the author
France and Italy in particular –
ly outraged if such a fate befell little Ilyas, an orphan from the government will take on part Facts fate of foreign and Russian
their country’s children in Rus- a small Siberian town. The “There is information and then of payments itself. adopters. Don’t think Russians
sia. boy was 8 months old. He there is propaganda. It’s the Second, Russia will soon re- The United States leads the list have it any easier when adopt-
The public mood is, of course, was born with one hand difference between reporting form its guardianship agencies of foreign adoptions, with Spain, ing an orphan. They encounter
all too often determined by ig- missing, and his shocked events and carrying out some- in order to reduce child aban- Italy, France, Germany, Ireland just as many barriers as for-
norance and biased informa- mother gave him up. There body’s will. I report impartially donment and encourage foster and Israel following. eigners.
tion. Information today is a was no need to ask why from the point of view of a per- families. The main thing Russia must do
commodity to be sold – and it they were taking on such a
DMITRY VORONCOV_ITAR-TASS
son who observes and draws Third, a majority of Russians Approximate adoption fees: is to change the public attitude
sells all the quicker with trage- burden—I saw them all to- conclusions.” This is the creed regard foreign adoptions as a $20,000-30,000 through to children, and learn to see
dy and sensation. gether, a loving family. of the noted Russian television national embarrassment. Many agencies, and $12,000-15,000 them as the greatest hope and
Then again, it is true that Rus- and radio presenter Svetlana demand they be prohibited, or through mediators (according of immeasureable value—as
sia is facing a demographic cri- Adoptions were chaotic and Sorokina. at least suspended. Public to the press). they are to every nation. Only
sis. With far fewer births than uncontrolled in a country infest- Although Svetlana speaks prosecutors have checked or- then will orphans have a real
deaths, the country is sup- ed by self-styled “mediators”— about herself as being very phanages in every part of the chance to be happy in a new
posed to hold every child pre- both individuals and organiza- tough, her friends say she is country for procedural viola- home.
cious – including orphans. tions. In an effort to impose gentle and kind. She may look tions. old, and the other thirteen.
“They are our strategic re- some order on this free-for-all, unapproachable – prim suits, The number of foreign adop- They decided to adopt As I was writing this, I
serve,” says a patriotic lady a bill was drafted to prohibit in- serious topics – but she is al- tions has drastically fallen this all three. As they later looked through photos
member of parliament. dependent (unmediated) adop- so cheerful. Today, she says, it year even though foreigners, learned, the children were the Connecticut family
The situation is easier to under- tions and introduce mediator is her adopted daughter Tonya unlike Russians, adopt adoles- taken to the orphanage af- had mailed me. Ilyas is
stand with a quick glimpse at accreditation. It burned along who is her biggest inspiration. cents, children of alcoholic, ter their grandmother was ten years old now. The
history. with other papers when the syphilitic and HIV-positive par- brutally murdered in front pictures show him play-
The October 1917 Revolution Parliament House was shelled ents, as well as children with of them. ing football with friends,
replaced adoptions with during the suppression of the congenital deformities. They Now, six months after the walking to school and sit-
“guardianship,” with the guard- mutiny of the fall of 1993. The to promote motherhood and A bill prohibiting independent also adopt siblings, while Rus- children found their new ting with his adoptive par-
ians appointed by government matter was not taken up again adoptions. More orphans are adoptions will be debated by sians prefer one child. home, Sasha speaks fluent ents. They all look happy,
agencies. An amendment to until 2000. Russia has changed finding guardians or foster par- parliament soon. English. The eldest girl has and the boy appears to
the Family Code re-introduced since then. Surging oil prices ents, but the number of adop- Russia is willing to make bilat- I recently heard about an problems but, at any rate, have adapted well despite
adoption in 1932. This allowed have brought affluence, and tions is increasing only slightly. eral agreements with interest- American couple, who she has given up smoking his missing hand. They
many children of Spanish Re- there are now many charities With an average of 130,000 ed countries, starting with Italy, came to Russia to adopt a and does sports. never concealed his Rus-
publicans, orphaned during the helping orphans. newly orphaned or abandoned France and Spain, to guaran- child from an orphanage sian origins from him.
Spanish Civil War in the late Nonetheless, there are even children registered every year, tee adoptees’ rights. Dealing for mentally and physi- Not every story has a fairy tale Some day, he may ask his
1930’s, to find new homes in more orphans and abandoned these efforts are just a drop in with the United States will be cally disabled children, ending. Some international adoptive parents about
the Soviet Union. That was al- children needing help. The the ocean. Why, then, is Rus- more complicated, as separate based near Moscow. At adoptions are dramatic. Both his family back in Siberia.
most the only example of Sovi- number of orphanages has sia so dogged in its opposition agreements will be necessary the age of seven, Sasha children and their adoptive Many children brought
ets adopting foreign children. doubled since the early 1990s, to international adoptions? with each state. looked no older than four, parents are at the mercy not up in American families
Though the Soviet legislation with a current total of 230,000 First, it wants to bring the mat- Education Ministry experts and had bad speech prob- only of laws and treaties but now seek their relatives in
never specifically banned inter- orphans living in the facilities. ter into order. Since this year, deny that the new legislation will lems. Adoption proceed- also of officials, who occasion- Russia.
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national adoption, the Cold The federal database has adoption agencies can be ac- lead to a considerable increase ings were about to start ally abuse their duties, bully
War and the Iron Curtain made 172,000 files of children eligi- credited only after checks by in adoptive parents’ expenses, when the couple found adopters and are prejudiced A list of overseas adoption
it practically impossible. The ble for adoption. Earlier this five ministries, rather than the as the agreements promise out that the boy had two against orphans. It is these agencies accredited in Russia
only exceptions were diplomat- year children’s grants were in- previous one. So far only 17 greater transparency, and in the sisters in another orphan- mediators, judges and orphan- is available on the website
ic families, who occasionally creased considerably in order agencies have qualified. case of certain countries – age. One was eight years age principals who settle the www.adopt-in-russia.ru
The State isn’t the Best Tutor Family Arrangements for Orphans
relatives at all. Orphanages are month per child since the start of other arrangement. But for the ment in which orphans are rubles ($163.3) and the pay-
certainly not the best places for 2007. The Moscow, Astrakhan children such legal details are taken in by relatives. ment to the parents at 2,500
them. Physicians and psychol- and Tula regions add their own irrelevant – they are simply The family receives an allow- rubles ($102).
ogists agree that life at home, allocations to these federal happy to leave the orphanage ance, set by the regional au- In recent years, some orphan-
More and more Russian or- even at a foster home, stimu- grants, and help foster families Adoption is the fullest integra- and become part of a family. thority, while the child retains ages have developed a fourth
phans are finding new homes. lates intellectual and emotional to improve housing. tion of a child into a new fam- The government has already all the benefits of an orphan, system known as “patron-
Sixty-four thousand children progress, helping children to There is a more important fac- ily. While the adopted child taken unprecedented steps to like easy access to higher ed- age.” Similar to fostering, a
were adopted or taken in by adapt to adult life and eventu- tor than money: a changing loses the status of an orphan encourage adoption. Starting ucation, for example. child who is officially regis-
foster parents in the first eight ally set up healthy families of public attitude. Ten percent of and the accompanying bene- this year, adopting parents will In a foster family, both the chil- tered in an orphanage lives
months of 2007, Deputy Prime their own. The state no longer Russian respondents to a poll fits and allowances, he or she receive a lump sum of 8,000 dren and the parents are enti- with a family.
Minister Dmitry Medvedev thinks it is the best tutor for the by VTsIOM (All-Russia Public acquires all the rights and re- rubles ($327) when adopting tled to money – the govern- The parents are considered
says. Great progress has been 200,000 children in orphanag- Opinion Research Centre), sponsibilities associated with a child, which is equal to the ment is effectively paying employees of the orphanage,
made since last year, when just es today. and 16% in another poll by the the new family, including childbirth allowance. Families them to bring up a child. Again, and a special “patronage ser-
7,700 orphans were adopted Adoptions are largely promoted Public Opinion Foundation rights of inheritance and the that adopt a second child will the actual size of benefits is vice” regularly visits the family
by Russians and another 6,700 by rising living standards and fi- said they were willing to adopt obligation to support the adop- also receive the same bene- determined by the regions. and provides assistance if
by foreigners. nancial incentives. This year’s a child. Officials must not hin- tive parents in their old age if fits, 250,000 rubles ($10,204) However, earlier this year, the needed.
Estimates of the total number federal budget allocated 6 billion der adoptions with red tape; they demand it through court. over three years, as they federal government issued a Although this system has been
of abandoned Russian chil- rubles, or $245 million, for the their principal duty is to monitor Occasionally the loss of ben- would for a second natural resolution setting the mini- taken up in about a third of the
dren vary from 700,000 to two purpose. Foster parents have childrens’ lives in their new efits deters families from child. mum monthly allowance for a regions, it has yet to be reflect-
million. Only one in six has no received 8,000 rubles ($327) a homes.
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adoption, and they seek an- Guardianship is an arrange- child in a foster family at 4,000 ed in federal law.
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How are Christmas
and New Year day
celebrated
in Russia?
Russian New Year with
Father Frost and the Snow
Maiden, sparkling
champagne, funny games
and competitions, presents
under the Christmas tree is
the most popular and
beloved national holidays.
Read about it in Russia
Beyond The Headlines on
December 19
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