The death of Dima Yakovlev, 2, who was adopted by an American couple, has provoked Russian authorities to take hasty decisions.

On Tuesday the foreign ministry announced it would be insisting on concluding a special bilateral agreement with American side about adoption and further control over the lives of the Russian children adopted to abroad. A few days before, the ministry of education had suspended the activities by three international organizations that assisted foreigners in adopting Russian orphans. The licenses were stopped for Russian branches of Family and Children’s Agency, Cradle of Hope Adoption Center and European Adoption Consultants. The latter organization helped the American coupe to adopt Dima Yakovlev and - as it is alleged by the press office of ministry of education – did not advise the Russian side about the child’s death. Ministry of education also suggested making changes in the Russian legislature forbidding the foreigners adopting Russian orphans directly, without assistance given by accredited agencies. 

Obviously, all those measures will reduce significantly the number of orphans adopted to abroad.    

Gradually, international adoption leaves Russia due to toughening of the laws and regular suspending the licenses given to agencies.

While in 2000 foreigners took 6,300 Russian orphans (which was almost a half of non-relative adoptions), the figure for the last year was only 4,500. Tatiana Tulchinskaya calls the legislative innovations to be “hysteria”. “Death of a child is always a terrible thing, but the number of orphans dying in Russia is incomparably bigger than number of those finding their death in abroad. I’m all for control over foster families, but I have a feeling that the state policy intends not strict control, but cessation of international adoption. Talks about our genofond are a sheer nonsense. Many foreigners take very ill children, they pay for surgical operations, and they rehabilitate children. Here in Russia, not a family but a life-time stay in a nursing home will be an alternative for this most vulnerable category of children.”  

Reminding, 21 adopted to abroad children have died within the period from 1991-2006. And 1,220 children, adopted in Russia, died within the same time frame.