American foster parents to pay alimony for rejected kids

Under the child adoption treaty between Russia and United States, American foster parents are to pay alimony to adopted Russian children in case they reject them after the adoption. The treaty has a retroactive effect, which means that a 33-year-old Tennessee woman, Torry Hansen, the adoptive mother of Artyom Savelyev, will also have to pay alimony. Last Apirl, she put her seven-year-old adopted son on a Moscow-bound plane and sent him unaccompanied back to Russia with a note saying that she no longer wanted him. 

The treaty stipulates that Russian court rulings concerning the place of residence of adopted children, adoption and the collection of alimony will be equally valid in the United States.  Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov explains:

"The treaty has a special clause on the mutual recognition of Russian and U.S. court rulings by both parties. This means that our court rulings will be equally valid in the U.S and vice versa."

In case an adoption is revoked and the child is returned to Russia, a Russian court may rule to collect alimony from the former adoptive parents. Pavel Astakhov hopes that Artyom Solovyov’s case is the first and also the last incident of the kind in the history of international adoptions.

The treaty clearly specifies the adoption revocation proceedings and readoption requirements. Pavel Astakhov:

"At the end of last year, the Russian consul in Washington visited a ranch, there is a whole network of them in the north of the U.S., where 34 children have been kept, most of them from Russia, who were rejected by their adoptive parents and who have not found new families. These are special corrective ranches for difficult children. The treaty obliges the U.S side to notify us whenever the adoption of a Russian child is revoked in America. Moreover, in order for a child to be readopted, the U.S. side is obliged to seek permission from the Russian Education and Science Ministry. Unless official permission is granted, readoption is impossible. The treaty has one very important provision: if competent agencies of the negotiating parties conclude that a child’s new surroundings are destructive or dangerous or that he or she cannot adapt to the new situation, they may rule to return the child to his homeland."

This is a retroactive treaty, which means that it equally concerns on Russian children who were adopted into the United States five or ten years ago, thus making it possible to trace the destiny of every adopted Russian child who has not come of age.

So far, Russia has adoption treaties with the United States and Italy. Talks on similar bilateral treaties are under way with France, Israel and Britain.