Two-Thirds of Russians Support Banning Foreign Adoptions – Poll

(Interfax – Moscow, March 11, 2013) The number of Russians, who support the ban on the adoption of Russian children by foreign citizens, has been increasing. Currently, 64 per cent of citizens are supporters of this position, a poll carried out by VTsIOM (All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre) in early March has shown.

According to the poll, 53 per cent were supportive of banning foreign adoptions in January 2013; 38 per cent, in May 2010 and 32 per cent, in June 2005. Conversely, the number of Russians who are against this ban, has been decreasing: they constitute 29 per cent in March 2013 whereas their share was 35 per cent in January (48 per cent in May 2010 and 61 per cent in June 2005).

A total of 81 per cent of respondents know about the death of Maksim Kuzmin in the USA and 14 per cent reported that they did not know about this case though they were familiar with other similar cases and 4 per cent had heard about the death of Russian children in the USA for the first time.

Russia must carry out its own investigation of such cases and reach the punishment of those guilty. This is what 19 per cent of respondents believe. About the same amount of respondents (19 per cent) support the idea of banning adoptions, 10 per cent are convinced that the government must care of its own children rather than giving them away abroad, 16 per cent suggested toughening control over what families children were sent to and 7 per cent noted the need to improve the legislative foundation in this field. Only 9 per cent of those polled support the view that Russia must not react to such cases since these children are adopted by US citizens. Some 3 per cent of people suggest returning all children that were adopted by foreigners to Russia.

Almost half of respondents (46 per cent) believe that cases of the cruel treatment of adopted children are a typical situation and 40 per cent believe that these are isolated cases and, mostly likely, exceptions to the rule.

Over half of respondents (59 per cent) believe that cases of violence against children are taking place both in the families of Russians and foreign adoptive parents with the same frequency. There are fewer cases of the cruel treatment of children abroad in contrast to their number in Russia, 22 per cent of respondents believe. Meanwhile, 12 per cent believe that the cruel treatment of children is a frequent phenomenon exactly in Russian families.

The VTsIOM poll was carried out on 2-3 March in 138 settlements in 46 regions, territories and republics of Russia. A total of 1,600 people took part in the poll. The margin of error is below 3.4 per cent.