Russia to ban US adoptions?

[Unkotare]

Russia Wants To Suspend US Adoptions | Fox News


Should they?

 

[syrenn]

Yep, i hope they do!

There are enough unwanted children languishing here in foster care...

 

[California Girl]

Russian authorities say that at least 17 Russian children have died in domestic violence incidents in their American families.

That's really sad.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

There was a huge stink last year about this time when the US family sent a 7 year old girl back to Moscow with just a suitcase and a nastygram to the adoption agency.

however, by all accounts the tyke was a hellion.

They are right to want a better set of safeguards for the kids.

 

[Unkotare]

The Plight of Russia's Orphans - Russian Life

 

[Unkotare]

Home - Russian street children

 

[Katzndogz]

They should. Russia has a terrible problem with drug and alcohol abuse. Some of these children are terribly damaged, and/or born drug addicted themselves. Instead of help, they get adopted into US families who have drug problems themselves. On top of all that, there is no oversight of what happens to Russian children adopted into American families. No follow up to make sure they are working out.

 

[Unkotare]

What evidence do you have that any significant percentage of adoptive US families have drug problems?

 

[Katzndogz]

What evidence do you have that any significant percentage of adoptive US families have drug problems?

None. Generally the United States has a serious drug problem. No one doubts or disputes that.

Russia is looking at 17 dead Russian kids as a result of domestic violence. Something aggravated that.

 

[Unkotare]

So you cannot support your assumption. I thought so.

 

[merrill]

Seems like Russia has it backward.

Birth control is available yet expensive. Abortions are free. Perhaps both should be free for the asking with birth control leading the way.

 

[GHook93]

We should ban allowing Americans to adopt Russians. Everyone I have known who has done it (4 couples if your counting) have had major troubles. For the record, none have returned the children and all love them. However, they have severe emotional problems. There first few years of life are in a very uncaring, cruel orphanage. It's dirty, poor, cold, little food to eat and they take regular beatings. These children are distant, disturbed and some so emotionally bruised they will never have normal human interaction. Russian adoptions are seeing this as the norm!

 

[waltky]

Granny says tell `em to keep dey's ill-behaved lil' brats...

Putin to support ban on US adoption of Russian orphans
Friday, December 21, 2012 - Vladimir Putin will support plans to stop American families from adopting Russian orphans, in retaliation against an “unfriendly” human rights law passed in the US.

The Russian president said a vote for the ban in the Russian parliament on Wednesday was an “emotional” response, but an “appropriate” one. The Duma’s hasty move to stop Americans adopting Russian children is a tit-for-tat reply to a US law that bans Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses from travelling to the United States. The US Congress passed the Magnitsky Act on December 6th. The American law was named after Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after discovering what he said was a massive tax fraud perpetrated by state officials.

Anti-Russian

Speaking to journalists in Moscow yesterday, Mr Putin became animated when he described the Magnitsky law as “an anti-Russian act” that he could not turn the other cheek to. “I am probably a bad Christian . . . if they have slapped us, we need to answer.” Reducing foreign adoptions has been one of Mr Putin’s persistent welfare themes and plays well to a nationalist audience. “We need to bring up our children ourselves,” he said yesterday. He also upbraided western powers for the “mistake” of intervention in Libya and said this should not be repeated in Syria. However, he added that Russia was “not concerned” about the fate of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The Russian president was speaking at a marathon press conference, which clocked in at four hours and 32 minutes, where he expounded on everything from pork production to the charms of national costume and the end of the world – not for at least 4½ billion years in Mr Putin’s estimation.

Mr Putin defended his record in power since 2000 and said he had made “no major, systematic mistakes”. Batting away a question that Russia was in stagnation, Mr Putin praised China’s stability, saying that investors were not afraid to put their money there. “Order and discipline are not in contradiction with democracy,” he said. He also dismissed questions about his own health, a subject of increasing speculation after several foreign trips were cancelled in the autumn. But the adoption issue attracted the most interest. A journalist from Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, challenged Mr Putin’s claim that the population supported the ban and said her paper has collected more than 100,000 signatures against it in two days.

Political pawns

Opponents have accused the authorities of using vulnerable children as political pawns. “For disabled children, being adopted by Americans is their only chance, because in Russia services are not well organised,” said Nastiya, a protester who took part in a picket at the Duma on Wednesday. Slightly fewer than 1,000 Russian children were adopted by Americans in 2011, down from nearly 6,000 in 2005.

Putin to support ban on US adoption of Russian orphans - The Irish Times - Fri, Dec 21, 2012

See also:

US adoption groups voice concern over Russia ban
20 Dec.`12 WASHINGTON — US adoption agencies expressed deep concern Thursday after President Vladimir Putin backed legislation making it illegal for Russian children to be adopted by Americans.

"It's unfortunate that the Russian government is contemplating punishing children who would benefit from having safe and loving homes here in the United States" because of a bilateral spat over human rights, said Richard Klarberg, president of the Council on Accreditation, which represents about 200 US adoption agencies. Families in the process of adopting "are very concerned they won't be able to bring their children home," added Anya Rutherford, director of the Russia program at Christian World Adoption. "They have been calling me, emailing me. They are very frightened, very scared," said Rutherford, whose organization is currently helping 35 families waiting for a child in Russia to adopt.

Many couples have gone to Russia to meet the children they will be adopting once legal proceedings are completed. "They already know the children," Rutherford said. "They already fell in love with these children." The Duma, or lower house of the Russian parliament, gave second-reading approval Wednesday to legislation forbidding the adoption of Russian children by Americans. Putin signaled his support for it on Thursday. Russia sees the ban as retaliation for a US human rights law that allows the seizure of assets from Russian officials implicated in the 2009 death of a lawyer who blew the whistle on a $235 million police embezzlement scheme.

Those same officials would also be barred from entering the United States. "It's a very strong reaction -- and one that is misdirected," Klarberg told AFP. Some 45,112 Russian children have been adopted by American families since 1999, including 962 last year -- many of them with special needs. China remains the biggest source of children adopted from abroad. "Each country advocates for the protection of human rights," said Elina Filippova of Adoption ARK, based in Illinois. "The unfortunate outcome of this conflict is the violation of the rights of the most vulnerable, the kids with special needs... We hope the Duma will consider its decision."

One couple in West Virginia, Kimberly and Christopher, who asked that their surnames not be used, said through their adoption agency that they are still eager to complete the adoption of a baby Russian boy they first laid eyes on a year ago. "We do not understand what the children have to do with any of this... They are being used as pawns in a political game, and that is very sad," they said in an email. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland did not speak at length on the matter, although she said she was aware of talk in the Russian media of possible amendments to the law. She added that the United States remains committed to a bilateral treaty on adoptions and would keep working directly with Russian authorities who handle adoption cases.

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