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U.S., Russia Reach Deal on Child Adoptions

Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov walking up to a gate after a Foreign Ministry meeting in Moscow with U.S. officials on adoptions, Wednesday, May 12. Misha Japaridze

The United States and Russia have agreed on key points of a treaty regulating child adoptions, and a final draft will be approved Friday for signing within two months, children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said Wednesday.

The agreement, which Moscow demanded after a U.S. mother returned her 7-year-old son alone on a plane to Russia last month, will put an end to independent adoptions through lawyers instead of authorized adoption agencies, Astakhov said after a second round of talks with U.S. officials at the Foreign Ministry.

"There will be no so-called independent adoptions because this caused major problems. There was no opportunity to track a child's well-being," Astakhov said in a statement.

He said Russian officials had accepted a U.S. proposal under which agencies that participate in adoptions would have to receive U.S. accreditation and work in accordance with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, which has been ratified by the United States but not by Russia.

The boy who was returned to Russia was adopted independently, a process that Russian officials have complained does not allow them to monitor adopted children's well-being.

Astakhov said the draft agreement will oblige adoptive parents and adoption agencies to report on the children's health and living conditions and will allow social workers to visit homes to verify the reports.

"We have reached agreement on all key issues and have noticed a readiness to sign such an accord," Astakhov told journalists.

Members of the U.S. delegation, headed by senior State Department official Michael Kirby, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Russia effectively suspended adoptions after Artyom Savelyev, now 8, was sent unaccompanied on a plane to Moscow on April 8 with a note from his U.S. adoptive mother that said he was violent and psychologically unfit. Torry Hansen, 32, is still de jure his legal parent.

The Washington-based World Association for Children and Parents filed a petition Tuesday before a circuit court in Tennessee asking that an investigation be opened to determine whether the boy was abused, neglected or abandoned, The Associated Press reported.

In Russia, 120,000 children are registered as orphans every year, senior United Russia official Tatyana Yakovleva said Wednesday.

About 3,500 Russian children are currently in the process of being adopted by about 3,000 U.S. families, according to the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, which represents many U.S. agencies engaged in international adoption.

U.S. families have adopted more than 14,000 children from Russia over the past five years, including 1,500 last year.

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