NEWSLINK: “They’ll Be in America While We’ll Be Left to Deal with the Authorities” [re: Adoptions]

File Photo of Russian Orphans with Mr. and Mrs. Dmitry Medvedev

[“They’ll Be in America While We’ll Be Left to Deal with the Authorities” – Moskovsky Komsomolets – January 15, 2013 – no public link to English-language version]

Moskovsky Komsomolets covers adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Policy Olga Golodets, Russia has nearly 130,000 orphan children in need of a family, with fewer than 20,000 families wanting to adopt.

Yet, aside from any pending national ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans, there can be other Russian governmental obstacles:

Problems continue to arise for US citizens who have adopted Russian children, American reports indicate. Adoptive parents are not being issued birth certificates or passports for their new children. Many experience delays in receiving court rulings on adoptions that have been approved and are already in progress.

An adoption is considered valid when the court issues a positive ruling on a specific child for a specific family. These children must be released, says presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. But the actual situation is not so clear.

For adoptions already in the works, the article indicates, the local municipal and judicial apparatus can present added red-tape:

“I know of several cases where the paperwork for a court ruling is not forwarded to the parents,” Mikhail Viktorovich, a US adoption agency spokesman told Moskovsky Komsomolets. “So the parents cannot obtain new birth certificates or passports for their children because the registry office can only issue the documents when a court decision has been handed down. I believe the local authorities are protecting themselves just in case. A mother whose court ruling entered into force a few days ago, who should get all her documents to take her son was told she would be given the paperwork after the Supreme Court gives instructions how to proceed. But what instructions are needed here?”

A spokeswoman for another agency said that when a court clerk was asked why no ruling had been issued, she said blankly: “They’ll be in America while we’ll be left to deal with the authorities.”

Nevertheless, the plaintiffs in the trials have hope that all the obstacles will be overcome and that their children will be released ­ after all, the Russian president cannot go back on his word.

The fate of children whose adoption is nearing completion but who have not received a court decision is more disturbing. The authorities have decided to keep them in Russia. But these adoptive parents are taking hope … that there will be no formal approach, that each case will be considered separately.

The article reports that U.S. efforts to prod Russia over the new adoptions law have been met by Russian claims that the Russian government will simplify the adoption procedure, inviting yet additional concerns by critics:

The U.S. continues to press Russia for explanations on how the new law will be implemented and on what can be done by Americans who are already in the final stages of adoption.

Meanwhile Russia’s Education and Science Ministry plans to simplify the adoption procedure within the next two weeks. They suggest that the requirements for potential adoptive parents will be reduced, that the number of documents required from Russian citizens will be cut and that tax benefits will be offered to the adoptive parents.

Some experts, however, have expressed doubts about these measures. They believe that less rigid demands combined with material benefits will result in children being adopted without proper screening or for profit.

[no public link available to English-language version]

Comment