Families looking to adopt feel US-Russia strain

A new law requires US adoption agencies to apply for accreditation in Russia

NEW YORK: Some US couples hoping to adopt children from Russia are concerned that rising political tensions between the countries could add delays to their bids to become parents.

Under new laws Moscow officials say are a step toward limiting the number of children leaving Russia, US agencies that arrange adoptions must seek re-accreditation in Russia in a slow process involving five Russian ministries. For the moment, no US adoption agencies are accredited to organise adoptions in Russia, and Moscow has given no indication of how long the re-accreditation process will take.

The tightening of Russia’s adoption process had long been demanded by nationalist lawmakers shocked by a series of well-publicised murders of Russian children abroad. According to reports in US newspapers, 14 Russian children have been killed by their adopted American parent since the 1990s.

Some US agencies, parents and experts have raised concerns that the accreditation process could become caught up in a rise in political tensions between US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Adoption is seen as a fraught issue for Russians, which is therefore going to be sensitive to changes in US-Russia relations,” said Cathy Nepomnyashchy, director of Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European studies at Columbia University in New York.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have hit a new low over a US plan to protect itself and European allies from what Washington thinks is a growing ballistic missile threat in part by building a shield in Central Europe. Moscow fears the United States could convert it for use against Russia.

Dale Herspring, a political science professor and Russian expert at Kansas State University, said he had no doubt that the mood in the Kremlin has a “trickle down” effect.

“That does not mean that Putin gave an order to slow down or create problems when it comes to adoptions,” he said.

“If US-Russian relations are bad, this means that those bureaucrats who don’t want to see Russian children leave the country, have a stronger position to resist adoptions.”