Russia Moves to Tighten Adoption Rules
STEVE GUTTERMAN
The Associated Press
MOSCOW -- Russia's Education Ministry called on Tuesday for tougher rules governing foreign adoptions, following the death of a 2-year-old Russian girl whose American adoptive mother has been charged with murder.
The ministry, which oversees adoptions, seeks legislation to introduce mandatory training programs and psychological testing for foreigners seeking to adopt Russian children. It also wants to remove what it says is a loophole that allows adoptions organized by groups or individuals not accredited with the Russian government.
The ministry said it suspected the adoption of Nina Hilt, whose mother has been charged in her death this month in Virginia, was carried out with illegal assistance from Russian middlemen.
That position contradicted regional prosecutors, who found that the girl was adopted with no violations of federal regulations, the Interfax news agency reported Monday, citing a senior aide to prosecutor Alexander Semyonov in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
Hilt's adoptive mother, Peggy Sue Hilt, 33, of Wake Forest, N.C., was arrested last week and charged with murder. An autopsy showed the girl died from one or more blows to her abdominal area, police said.
Just weeks before, Russian authorities had stripped three U.S.-based adoption agencies of accreditation, saying they failed to monitor the children's well-being with their adoptive families.
Russian nationalists often accuse foreigners of "buying" Russian children _ some 260,000 of whom live in orphanages and similar facilities _ and cases of abuse by foreign adoptive parents are widely reported in the Russian media.
Earlier this year, an Illinois woman was imprisoned for 12 years for the death of her 6-year-old son just weeks after he was adopted from Russia.
About 10,000 Russian children are adopted each year by foreigners, with about half going to the United States. Russian families rarely adopt, and the Education Ministry has launched a campaign aimed at increasing domestic adoptions.
The Education Ministry statement said cases of abuse among the 62,741 Russian adopted by foreigners since 1991 were rare, with 12 violent deaths caused by the adoptive parents _ 11 of them in the United States.
Still, the ministry called for an urgent "review of the demands for foreign adoption candidates." A ministry spokesman said most of the proposed changes would have to be reviewed by the government before being submitted to parliament.
An independent Russian expert on children's issues, Paulina Filippova, said the recommended mandatory training and psychological testing could be "extremely helpful" if done correctly.
But she warned against banning what the ministry called "independent" adoptions, saying that "could sharply decrease the number of adoptions" by foreigners who often use middlemen who help negotiate bureaucratic procedures.
With foreigners adopting about as many children as Russians _ and, in particular, more older and disabled children _ that's not a good idea, she said.
"In the interests of the children, it would be better not to limit the opportunities for adoption by foreigners but to improve the system of control over the fate of the child after adoption," Filippova said.