The Russian Foreign Ministry has put a freeze on all adoptions to the US until an agreement can be made between the two countries to better protect the rights--and we presume bodies and minds--of children placed in US homes.New York Times:
“Future adoptions of Russian children by citizens of the United States, which are now suspended, are possible only if such an agreement is reached,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, (right) said at a briefing on Thursday.
Officials at the United States Embassy in Moscow said they had not received official notification of a suspension and were seeking more information from their Russian counterparts.
Fox News adds:
Today State Department sources were caught unawares by the announcement of a freeze. A U.S. diplomatic source told me "we don't know anything about it, the Russians have told us nothing officially".
The National Council for Adoption sent out a press release (not yet online) this morning which reads in part:
The National Council For Adoption (NCFA) has spoken with Russian officials in the Ministry of Education (the Russian department with oversight of intercountry adoption) and with those in the Russian Embassy and neither department has been able to confirm the announcement or issue a public statement regarding when and if it will go into effect.
JCICS posted a similar statement
There's nothing on the State Department Intercountry Adoption page yet.
I find it hard to believe that everybody just misunderstood Andrei Nesterenko
Your tax dollars at work:
A US State Department delegation is headed for Moscow to try to bail out the privately owned international adoption industry.Addenda: This just in from NCFA (not online):
DATED 11:36am
NCFA has confirmed with officials from the U.S. Department of State that the rumor of a suspension of intercountry adoptions from Russia to the U.S. is currently false. Intercountry adoptions are still being processed by the Russian Ministry of Education
10 comments:
I am sure you are thrilled that thousands of children that Russia "cares" so much about will rot in an orphanage until they can become prostitutes and drug dealers. Way to go on your one sided half truth reporting!
You seem to think that the US adoption industry exists for the betterment of children. It's doesn't. It's a corrupt system supported and promoted to fill the pockets of crooks and promote US neocolonialism. Why do you think most countries are shutting down cross-country adoption with the US or at least curbing it?
Have you ever adopted? Have you been to these orphanages where Russia takes such good care of their children. I am sorry but I believe the 60,000 plus children that Russia has abandoned and have been adopted by Americans would say their life is better. The corrupt industry here is the Russian adoption industry where they lie about children's histories and take tens of thousands of dollars for the children they can't take care of. Where does that money go? Back to the kids in the orphanage to make their lives better? I think not. Russia does not give a shit about these kids unless they can use it for political propaganda. Where were all these families that are willing to adopt this boy before Russia used this incident for their political agenda? Why didn't they adopt some of the tens of thousands of children rotting away in your orphanages? Russia will not close down adoptions....they need Americans and all of our money. We are big business to them. The people who actually care about these children are the adoptive parents like myself who jump through hoop after hoop to bring an orphan that Russia has abandoned into our family. I would suggest you quit posting stories about the few adoptions that have gone wrong. There are crazy people every where. Have you forgotten in the Masha story you like to talk about all the time that her own Russian mother shot her in the head. Why don't you talk more about that? There are crazy people in every country. It is insulting that you group all American adoptive parents in the same group as this woman. Forever family does not mean forever dead. 99.99% of American adoptive families love their children more than life itself.
Why don't you post about this:
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia should take urgent action to protect children from violent crime and sexual abuse, in order to prevent them from joining a growing army of abandoned children.
A total of 126,000 children were victims of violence in Russia last year, Medvedev told a meeting of senior officials, according to the transcript of his speech posted on the official Kremlin website.
Medvedev said 1,914 underaged children had died as a result of violent attacks in 2008 and another 12,500 were missing. Official data showed 760,000 minors were living "in socially dangerous conditions," he said.
START REPORTING THE TRUTH!
"We need a normal system of childhood protection in the most accurate sense of this word. Today there is no such system in the country, and these deplorable figures prove this," he said.
Russian newspapers often publish reports about children falling prey to pedophiles or being killed in domestic violence by parents or relatives who are drunk or taking drugs.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Russias_Medvedev_Urges_Action_Against_Child_Abuse/1511570.html
No, I have not adopted and would not adopt under any circumstances.
I am adopted and stand for the rights and dignity of adopted persons and potential adopted persons. Promoting adoption, as it is practiced in the US does not do that.
I've lived off and on in Russia since 1988.
Certainly Russia is much to blame for its own situation. The government has done little to curb alcoholism, drug addiction, and routine family abuse which cause much of the child abandonment situation. Obviously much abuse takes place in the family and orphanage systems.
US adoption however, shouldn't perpetuate this. Huge profits should not be made off the sale of "orphpans." Adoption should not be used as a tool for conversion for evangelicals and fundamentalists. Adoption should not be part of US foreign policy and used to force countries to turn over their children to Forever Families. And the US government should not be bailing out the corrupt and venal adoption industry on either side of the world.
@anonymous
>Why didn't they adopt some of the tens of thousands of children rotting away in your orphanages?
Talking to my Russian friends (and yes I live here) one of the problems is that people have been 'priced out of the market' by rich US adopters.
Orphanages focus on the lucrative US child trade.
I'm not disputing there is a corruption here, but the adoption industry and their money has played a part in that.
But BD is right - alcoholism, drug addiction, and routine family abuse are a big problem here. Russia is still getting on it's feet after the crisis. Social spending is depressingly low, especially in the regions. I have to remind myself that they have only had capitalism for 10yrs, following a period of complete breakdown when the world abandoned them - hopefully things will start to get better.
Your reference to Masha is insulting. Are you suggesting 5yrs with a pedophile wasn't such a bad deal? Bit like 'Chase' (Dmitry), at least he got 3 months in the US before being roasted alive in a hot car. Lucky her, lucky him and God Bless America.
We all know there are successful adoptions, of course there are. There are very good, honest and loving people in the US. But there stories need reporting. We need to see what can be done to improve things - not close our eyes and pretend all adoption is 'good'.
I'm very glad BD is here to report on these stories. Thank you.
Anonymous doesn't get it, been filled with the kool aid from adoption agencies. Only a small portion of the 60,000 "Abandoned" orphans are properly relinquished as defined by the USA as "adoptable". The majority are "social orphans"
Before Anonymous goes ranting about the poor orphans of Russia she has no further to look than her/his front porch to see the many disadvantaged American children.
Aproximately 1.4 million of the homeless in this country are children. I don't see any of these private adoption businesses (and they are private businesses) running and trying to helping them. In fact, the international adoption agencies (private businesses) are the ones that started the propaganda regarding domestic adoptions: don't adopt a fost to adopt, the bio mother will come back, the mother is a crackhead, the children are damaged, the costs are high, etc., Ironically now that many countries have closed down to the USA some of these private businesses that are called Adoption Agencies have added a domestic program. Gotta do what you gotta do to keep the business $$$$.
Anonymous is out of touch with reality and the terrible situation that faces American children today. No wonder Russian people have a poor opinion of Americans and their sense of entitlement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N78g0gRUPs&feature=player_embedded#!
START REPORTING THE TRUTH:
you miss the point, there is no country without incidences of child abuse. America's abuse numbers are higher than those that you cite.
The issue is good clean adoptions where it benefits the child. Many of these adoptions are not a good fit and have ended up disastrous. This could have been AVOIDABLE, had the adoption agencies not been greedy or Russian's turn their heads to bribes by the agencies like WACAP that made over $4 million in 2008 and who's director Lillian Thoreson is paid $95,000.
It is a business transaction, and this site has printed the truth about adoptions while your adoption websites paint the rosy, sugar coated ending which is not the case in ALL adoptions.
Why don't these agencies start a humanitarian program in Russia for the children? Foster Care? Counseling? Training? NO?- I will tell you the reason why.
Because Anonymous it would stop the inventory of children here to the USA.
Do you know how many American children end up as Prostitutes and Drug Dealers? Take a look in any metro town across the USA - full of child prositutes.
AMericans and their holier than thou attitudes. We should clean up our backyard first before we attempt to judge others and promote the destruction of families in Russia because an Adoption Agency in America feels an American would be better suited to parent their children. Our money has gone into breaking down the social family structure in Russia.
Children of the Night
(Child prositution in America)
http://www.childrenofthenight.org/
http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/
1.5 million American children homeless
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