NEW YORK — U.S. parents adopted 1,082 Russian children last year, a drop of 500 from 2009 amid an adoption flap between the two countries, the U.S. the State Department said.
Some pending adoptions from Russia were slowed after a Tennessee mother put a 7-year-old boy on a plane back to Russia, unaccompanied by an adult, in April. As a result, U.S. officials agreed to a Russian demand to negotiate a new, binding agreement to cover adoptions between the two countries.
China remained America’s No. 1 source of adopted children, accounting for 3,401, while Ethiopia was second, at 2,513, followed by Russia.
The State Department also reported that 43 American children were adopted by residents of foreign countries last year — 19 of them went to Canada and 18 to the Netherlands.
(AP)
