Orphanages brim, but Russia thwarts foreign adoption

This week, the last of 89 foreign-based adoption agencies failed to get reaccreditation.

from the April 19, 2007 edition

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MOSCOW - Two years. That's how long Sandy Deede and her family have been struggling with the red tape of the Russian adoption system, ever since they fell in love with Vova, a 12-year-old Russian orphan who visited them at their upstate New York home.

All foreign adoptions are now on hold in Russia. And due to Moscow's sweeping "reorganization" of the rules – fueled by a nationalist political drive to halt the practice altogether, say critics – it looks as if the Deede family's wait will continue.

"It's frustration with a capital F," says Ms. Deede. "Vova is just over there in Russia waiting and wondering why we're not coming to get him. How do you explain bureaucracy to a child?"

For US adoptive parents, Russia ranks third (after China and Guatemala) as the country of origin for the most orphans adopted. American families adopted 3,706 Russian children in 2006, down from 4,594 and 5,865 in the past two years. This year, those numbers could drop even more dramatically.

A year ago, there were 89 accredited foreign-based adoption agencies; this week, the last of them saw their accreditation expire. Officials say that 76 agencies have filed documents for reaccreditation, and are at varying stages on a treadmill that now requires them first to register as nongovernmental organizations under a new law. Adoption agencies were previously licensed by the Ministry of Education, but now their applications must also be vetted by the ministries of interior, justice, foreign affairs, and health.

"It's a whole new process, based on a government decree passed last November," says Sergei Vitelis, an official with the Ministry of Education and Science. "We do not yet have a single case where all the ministries have given their approval; as soon as we have, we'll start issuing licenses."

Russia has some 700,000 institutionalized children, about 260,000 of whom are officially listed as orphans available for adoption. Last year alone 140,052 children were placed in orphanages, according Russia's official Statistics Service, while 7,742 were adopted by Russian families and 6,689 by foreigners.

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