MOSCOW, July 7 (Itar-Tass) — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an adoption agreement between Russia and the United States included toxicity testing of adoptive parents and forbade independent adoption.
In an interview with Rossiya 24 Channel on Thursday, Lavrov said, “An agreement on international adoption includes several very important and obligatory elements. The first element is essential toxicity testing of potential adoptive parents due to several episodes such as beating and abuse of Russian adopted children. The American authorities will bear responsibility for this testing.”
“The second element is to forbid the so-called independent adoption. Adoption should be conducted only through a specially accredited agency. The U.S. authorities also bear responsibility for this,” Lavrov stressed.
“And the third element is that all Russian children adopted by Americans will not change their citizenship,” he added.
According to official Russian data, last year 1,079 children were adopted from Russia by American parents. To date, according to various estimates, approximately 130,000 children have been included in the data bank of those who are ready for adoption. A few years ago there were 160,000 of such boys and girls.
To this end, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will make a visit to the United States on July 11-13 for talks with American officials. Among other things, the parties hope to sign an adoption agremeent.
Earlier, U.S. Ambassador in Moscow John Byerly said the Russian foreign minister and the U.S. Secretary of State would sign an adoption agreement in Washington next week.
Byerly said, “My task is to build more constructive and more fruitful relations between our countries. It can be said much: about the START Treaty, Russia’s upcoming to the WTO and ambitious economic deals.”
“But the most important thing for me is that next week, when I go to Washington, Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton will sign an adoption agreement and an agreement on liberalising the visa regime. All of us should applaud it because this proves the depth of our relationship,” the U.S. diplomat said.