Interfax: Over 65,000 children were adopted in Russia in 2013 – Astakhov

Pavel Astakhov file photo

MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax) – The number of children adopted in Russia went up almost 7% in 2013, Russian presidential children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said.

“In 2013, 65,600 children were adopted, which is a 6.7% increase from the previous year,” Astakhov told a press conference.

At the same time, Astakhov said there were no special financial incentives for people who adopted children.

The number of children left without parental care, who are in the state children’s database, exceeded 106,000 as of early 2014, he said.

“As of January 1, 2014, the number of such children (who are in the federal database of orphans and children left without parental care) reached 106,646. In 2009, there were 140,355 such children. You see that there is a 36% difference,” Astakhov said.

“The reduction of the children who are in the state database indicates that active work was done in 2013,” he said.

Year 2013 was unprecedented in terms of attention given to orphaned children, he said.

“Such a broad debate on the rights of orphans has probably not taken place in Russia in the past 100 years,” he said.

Comment