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(RIA Novosti) - Independent adoptions of Russian children by foreign citizens will be banned in Russia by the end of this year, a senior education ministry official said Tuesday.
According to ministry figures, 12 Russian children adopted by non-Russian families have died of abuse since 1991. Eleven of the cases were registered in the United States.
"The ministry has drafted amendments to the federal law on adoptions that prohibit foreign families from adopting Russian children without the assistance of licensed adoptions agencies," Sergei Apatenko said.
He added that the government had already approved the amendments and the State Duma, parliament's lower chamber, was set to consider them in two months.
Apatenko said most problems were linked with cases of foreign adoptions when foreigners took children from Russian orphanages independently without addressing specialized agencies.
"As a rule, such families... contacted adoption agencies that had no accreditation in Russia and failed to inform bodies about children's living conditions overseas," he said.
Apatenko also said foreign families had adopted 64,000 Russian children since 1999, when foreign adoptions were allowed in the country, whereas Russian families had adopted 157,000 children. He said adoption procedures in Russia should be simplified to reduce the number of foreign adoptions.
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