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A new Russian-U.S. child adoption agreement is ready to be forwarded to authorities for approval after negotiators reached a speedy deal under which Washington accepted most demands put forth by Moscow.
Adoption from Russia will now be done through authorized agencies only, and the adoptive parents will have to undergo special training, children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov told Vremya Novostei in an interview published Thursday.
U.S. parents will also report on the health and living conditions of the children, and social workers will be allowed to visit their homes to verify the reports, Astakhov said.
Both countries are expected to approve the treaty within six months, a senior official at the Education and Science Ministry, Alina Levistskaya, told RIA-Novosti this week.
The agreement will have retroactive effect, which would allow Russian authorities to press charges against the U.S. mother and grandmother who sent their adopted child, Artyom Savelyev, 8, to Moscow unaccompanied on a plane with a note that said he was violent and psychologically unfit.
The incident prompted Russia to effectively suspend adoptions.
Savelyev was adopted through an independent agency — a model that Russian officials have said does not allow them to monitor the living conditions and well-being of children.
Under the agreement, Russia accepted a U.S. proposal to introduce obligatory U.S. accreditation for adoption agencies, which will have to comply with the Hague Adoption Convention, ratified by the United States but not by Russia, Astakhov has said.
About 3,500 Russian children are currently in the process of being adopted by 3,000 U.S. families.
U.S. families have adopted more than 14,000 children from Russia over the past five years, including 1,500 last year.
About 120,000 Russian children are registered as orphans every year.
