New Russia-US adoption deal to come into force

A new US-Russia pact comes into force next month to strengthen adoption safeguards after several cases of abuse of Russian children by their adoptive American families sparked an outcry. The bilateral agreement takes effect on November 1, and the State Department said it was working to "promote a safe, ethical and transparent adoption process" for parents, families and children. It follows more than two years of negotiations after a Tennessee woman sent her seven-year-old adopted son alone on a flight back to Russia with a note saying he was violent and she could not care for him. The special adoptions agreement was signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in July 2011, and signed into law in July this year by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States has the world's most adoptive parents and Russia has long been one of its biggest providers. But the number of children adopted from Russia to the United States has declined in recent years to 962 last year from a peak of 5,862 in 2004, according to official figures. Moscow has long argued it should have more oversight over the adoption process and the row was an irritant that flared into diplomatic disputes when the former Cold War rivals clashed over other issues. Under the terms of the accord, independent adoptions will be banned as of November 1 and prospective parents will have to work through authorized US agencies accredited under The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. People wishing to adopt a Russian child will also have to obtain pre-approval from US Citizenship and Immigration services. The rules for adoption agencies working in Russia will also be tightened by the Russian education ministry and are due to go into force in March 2013. There will also be stringent monitoring of the child in his or her American home, with regular reports provided to the Russian authorities. After the 2010 case, many Russians were also angered in February 2011 by what it called a series of unjustifiably lenient sentences to parents who abused Russian children, and threatened to suspend all further adoptions. That month a Pennsylvania woman whose Russian toddler was hospitalized with burns over 10 percent of her body after being punished was given only a light jail term.