(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 […]
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MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) – Russia has the biggest child suicide rate in Europe, the Rospotrebnadzor website reported on Monday. “Russia has the highest suicide rate among children and teens in Europe. The rate has grown by 35%-37% in the recent years. In all, Russia reported about 800,000 suicides from 1990 to 2010,” it said. The child suicide rate continues […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – March 7, 2013) Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times. Shortly after Maxim Kuzmin was born to an alcoholic mother in the Pskov region three years ago, Russian child welfare officials placed him, and later his younger brother, in an orphanage after concluding that the mother was unfit to […]
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MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian officials reacted with a mixture of anger and suspicion on Saturday after officials in the United States said the death of a 3-year-old Russian child in Texas was an accident. Max Shatto, also known as Maxim Kuzmin, died on January 21 in Ector County, Texas, sparking anger in Russia, where his death was […]
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BERLIN, February 26 (RIA Novosti) The United States and Russia will do “everything possible” to facilitate a dialogue between the Syrian government and the armed opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday in Berlin following his first bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry. “No one will solve the Syrians’ problems for them, but in order for […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – February 25, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News A story needs a beginning and end, but what has become the main narrative of Russia’s current political era doesn’t seem to have either. And the weak are meat the strong do eat, as David Mitchell coined in his […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Svetlana Smetanina, special to RBTH – February 26, 2013) A new law on education soon to be passed in Russia will allow parents of children with special needs to demand that their children be educated in regular state schools. Moscow Technological High School 1540 has been teaching children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – February 26, 2013) Investigators have opened a murder case into the death of a 9-year-old Russian boy in the care of U.S. parents, the Investigative Committee said in an online statement late Monday. Anton Fomin died of smoke inhalation in a fire at his house in the state of Nebraska in May […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes the U.S. administration in the past few weeks has manifested a wish to influence the administrations of the U.S. states to resolve problems of Russian children adopted by U.S. citizens. “They have a wish to do it. We have seen some attempts to influence the administrations of the states. […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, February 21, 2013) Up to 300 adopted children die in Russia every year but practically no-one has faced criminal prosecution over these deaths, head of the State Duma Committee on Affairs of Family, Women and Children Yelena Mizulina (representing A Just Russia party) said on Thursday (21 February). “According to the figures available to the committee, […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Feb 20 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said the living conditions of orphans in Russia are much more important than the current debate on adoptions. “We are now actively discussing the work with foreign adoptions, which is, of course, an important thing, but not the main thing. What is more important is the way children, who have been […]
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(Interfax – February 21, 2013) The results of the autopsy performed on Russian child Maxim Kuzmin who died in the U.S. have not been made public yet, Acting U.S. Consul in Russia Bill Bistransky said. Bistransky told Kommersant FM, commenting on the statement made by Russian envoy on human rights, democracy and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov saying that the […]
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WASHINGTON, February 19 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) The January death of a young boy adopted from Russia last year by American parents was called “suspicious” on Tuesday by Texas authorities investigating the case, but they stopped short of confirming the graphic evidence of abuse some Russian officials have claimed and said the parents have not been charged with […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – February 20, 2013) With striking unanimity and furor, senior officials and lawmakers on Tuesday condemned the latest death of an adopted Russian child in the United States, saying the incident vindicates the government’s controversial decision to ban U.S. adoptions. “The death of one more Russian child in the United States has at […]
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(Interfax – February 20, 2013) The Federation Council’s meeting on Wednesday began with the issue of the death in the U.S. of Maxim Kuzmin, 3, who was adopted by U.S. citizens. Senators did not hide their outrage with what has occurred, and each of them tried to communicate his position on the matter. Nikolai Kondratenko, former governor of the Krasnodar […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Anna Nemtsova, special to RBTH – February 19, 2013) Russian children’s rights ombudsman speaks candidly about his mission to abolish foreign adoption and end Russia’s role as an international “donor of orphans.” Russian children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, 47, is a man with a controversial mission: to end once and for all the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – February 19, 2013) The U.S. State Department will assist in Russia’s probe into the January death of a 3-year-old Russian boy adopted by an American woman, a spokesman told RIA-Novosti on Wednesday. Children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said the boy, Maxim Kuzmin, was killed by his adoptive mother in Texas on Jan. 21 […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – February 19, 2013) It was like putting a match to a powder keg. Reports of the death in Texas of a Russian adoptee are producing an outpouring of outrage from Russian political elites aimed directly at the United States. “Why should we send our children to certain death,” Deputy Chairwoman of the Federation […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – February 19, 2013) A bill redefining the conditions under which children can be seized from so-called “socially vulnerable families” has provoked fear among critics that more minors could be taken into state care due to petty infractions. Amid a renewed push by authorities to decrease the number of children in state care, […]
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WASHINGTON, February 14 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) – Russia’s ban of adoptions by US parents was enacted solely with the welfare of Russian children in mind, Moscow’s top envoy to Washington said this week, despite widespread perception among Americans that it was a retaliatory political act. Speaking in an interview with RIA Novosti, Ambassador Sergei Kislyak lamented an […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Nadezhda Gavrilova, special to RBTH – February 11, 2013 – Nadezhda Gavrilova is a reporter for Rossiyskaya Gazeta) 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of educational exchange programs between the United States and the Urals. U.S. Consul General in Yekaterinburg, Michael Reinert, talks to Rossiyaskaya Gazeta’s Nadezhda Gavrilova about the direction that educational exchange […]
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(Interfax – February 12, 2013) U.S. experts will come to Moscow to consult with Russian officials on the destiny of orphans, who could have been adopted by Americans. “Americans asked for consultations, and a large delegation will visit us and will discuss with our officials how to track those kids, who have already come within the field of vision of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – February 8, 2013) Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times. Russia’s ban on U.S. adoptions has been accompanied by a massive propaganda campaign filled with many distortions and fabrications. Below are the 10 largest myths spread by children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, United Russia Deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov and other […]
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MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has expressed its readiness to cooperate with Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) in legal cases involving violence against Russian children adopted by Americans, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Friday. In the course of a working meeting on Wednesday, Investigative Committee officials handed a letter from IC head Alexander Bastrykin to US […]
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[Russian state TV talk show discusses controversial State Duma bills – BBC Monitoring/Rossiya 1 – January 27, 2013] BBC Monitoring reports on the Rossiya 1 television program “Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyev” and its January 27, 2013, broadcast covering Duma bills: The 27 January edition of the “Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyev” talk show on state-owned Rossiya 1 TV featured […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 31, 2013) When the now-infamous ban on U.S. adoptions was first introduced in the State Duma in mid-December, some Russians suggested that a more appropriate response to the United States’ sanctions-imposing Magnitsky Act would have been to push their compatriots to adopt American children. “We shouldn’t ban the adoption of our […]
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WASHINGTON, January 30 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) – Russia’s ambassador to the United States agreed Wednesday to convey to Moscow the concerns expressed by a dozen US senators in a closed-door meeting about Russia’s recent ban on adoptions by US citizens, but stopped short of offering renewed hope to American families and Russian children whose adoptions have been […]
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MOSCOW, January 30 (RIA Novosti) – Fifty percent of respondents in a nationwide poll spoke in favor of the recently introduced law banning child adoptions by Americans, but 31 percent said they opposed the new legislation, the Levada Center pollster said on Wednesday. The poll, conducted between January 18 and 21, also found that 39 percent of respondents have nothing […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. Jan 29 (Interfax) – Eighty percent of Russian orphaned children have been adopted in Russia, said Irina Sokolova, vice chairperson of the State Duma Committee for Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs. “Besides the anti-Magnitsky law, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on January 28 on the state policy of protecting orphaned and parentless children. There are about 650,000 […]
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(Government.ru – January 27, 2013) Fareed Zakaria: Mr Prime Minister, thank you for agreeing to this meeting. In 2009, when you were President of Russia, you wrote a very interesting and important essay about Russia’s future. You said that the two major problems of the Russian economy were excessive dependence on oil and excessive corruption. A look at current statistics […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 28, 2013) With a United Russia deputy declaring that Russia is not Sodom and Gomorrah, the State Duma gave tentative approval to a bill that would ban “gay propaganda” to minors. But the measure, which mirrors similar legislation in place in St. Petersburg and several other areas, met with unusually strong […]
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(Government.ru – January 23, 2013) Question (as translated): Good morning! We have Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev here today. Forty-five minutes from now, he will deliver a keynote speech here in Davos, at the World Economic Forum. Mr Prime Minister, thank you for coming. By the way, you are the first leader who agreed to be interviewed without wearing a […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights commissioner, Konstantin Dolgov, has blamed U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul for crudely distorting facts by saying that by denouncing the Russian-American agreement on cooperation in child adoptions, Russia has lost the opportunity to monitor the lives of Russian children adopted in the United States. “We have read with […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – David Edwards – January 21, 2013) David Edwards is chief copy editor at The Moscow Times. An obscure Washington state politician once said her votes on proposed legislation were based on conscience, constituency and caucus in that order. She may be on to something. United Russia deputies in the State Duma who voted for […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – January 18, 2013) Russia’s new law banning American adoptions of Russian orphans is polarizing Russians into two camps: pro-West and anti-West. Russia’s parliament voted overwhelmingly last month to bar Americans from adopting Russian orphans. But the vote triggered this last week the largest protest Moscow has seen since President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated […]
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(Interfax – January 18, 2013) Over 70 per cent of Russians support the recently adopted law which bans adoption of Russian children by US families, Interfax news agency reported on 18 January, quoting a poll conducted by the pro-Kremlin All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). Details of the poll were posted on the centre’s website on the same day (http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=113548). […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – January 18, 2013) The culture and education ministers on Thursday presented a list of 100 Soviet and Russian films that schools will be advised to show students to strengthen their cultural values and to build bonds with their parents and teachers from older generations. “This is not a list of the best […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 18, 2013) Experts sharply criticized children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov’s proposals Thursday to create an orphan agency and inspect orphanages in Moscow, measures that appeared aimed at addressing concern over orphans’ welfare in Russia after the country renounced U.S. adoptions. “An agency with that name, explicitly for orphans, that’s the end of […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – January 16, 2013) James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR. During my two-week vacation in the United States, American friends again and again looked at me intently, and then asked: How do Russians see the new ban on Americans adopting Russian children? During the last three months […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – January 16, 2013) On the State Duma’s first day back to work this year, deputies sparred over whether to abolish a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American families, a measure passed late last year that has drawn fierce criticism. Members of the Just Russia faction submitted a bill that would […]
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WASHINGTON. Jan 15 (Interfax) – The U.S. administration cannot fathom Russia’s recent ban on the adoption of underage Russians by Americans but does not see it as a serious threat to U.S.-Russian relations in general, according to a senior American diplomat. Jake Sullivan, director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Office, said during an online conference that neither he personally […]
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[“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 […]
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(Interfax – January 15, 2013) The impossibility to continue funding pseudo-human rights organizations was the true reason behind last weekend’s protests against the so-called Dima Yakovlev law in Russia, the country’s ombudsman for children’s rights Pavel Astakhov said. “The protests are not not against the fact that they [orphans] are allegedly doomed to some sort of existence or even death […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – January 14, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News “Children are [expletive] sacred,” one protester was overheard telling another at Sunday’s March against Scoundrels. That was one of the reasons that the march, widely expected to continue a trend of dwindling turnout for the spate of mass anti-government […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 15, 2013) A State Duma committee on Monday discussed an online petition opposing the “Anti-Magnitsky Law” passed late last year, but it appeared to delay until at least April any action that could result from the petition. The petition, published on the website of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta last month, was […]
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GORKI, January 14 (RIA Novosti) – In terms of supply and demand Russia is an “adoptee’s market” with over 128,000 children waiting for adoption and only 18,000 families ready to take them, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Monday. Of that number 105,000 are in so-called “children’s homes,” or orphanages, while the others, who are 14 and above, are in […]
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MOSCOW, January 14 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) Opponents of a Kremlin-approved ban on US nationals adopting Russian children expressed anger on Monday at a state TV program that suggested they were betraying their homeland. “State television is brainwashing people,” said Maria Orlovskaya, who helped promote and organize Sunday’s peaceful protest march in central Moscow against the ban. “The authorities […]
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