What Russia doesnt mention is the terrible conditions of the kids there in orphanages to begin with. Nothing is going to be a perfect system. They are fortunate that Americans are willing to offer good homes to the kids. Since the article doesnt seem to have anything to do with religion, I will bring religion into it. A couple at my former church have adopted a boy and girl from Russia and it worked out well. Statistics probably show less problems with Russian kids adopted by Christian families.

Why is this story posted here? I see no relgion angle.

BankStreet - Good question I was wondering the same thing.

Clay you didn't mention those terrible conditions either so are you basing your comments on something or simply opinion?

Clay, some dingbat from the bible belt sent a little child more than halfway across the world alone because she changed her mind. I don't get your flag waving "Americans are willing to offer good homes to the kids," comment. This was hardly a good home.

It's harder to return a pair of shoes to Kmart, Clay. Heck, she had the boy for seven months and he wasn't going to school. Try taking your shoes back to Kmart after seven months. They'll laugh you out of the store.

College educated nurse Torry Hansen can't handle motherhood. Hansen wrote "This child is mentally unstable." I guess she thought a long lonely airplane ride would stabilize his mind. So she sends her mom off to the airport to dump off a guiltless precious child.

WTVF, NewsChannel 5 in Tennessee reports that the "Bedford County School system has no record of Artem, or Hanson's 10 year old biological son Logan ever being enrolled in school."

Sorry Clay, I can't wave the flag or blame the Russians here.

Like I said, it isnt going to be a perfect system. Not everyone in America is going to be a great adoptive parent. Maybe someone could have done more in checking out this lady, bible belt or not. And, it has been reported that there are abusive situations in Russian orphanages. The great majority of these kids are going to be better off here.

Clay - Who reported it and when. There has been abuse on orphans in this country as well so you statement is too vague to support your comment that "The great majority of these kids are going to be better off here."

It seems the Russians have been angry about the abuse of Russian children in the U.S. for some time. I found this list on the English language forum at Pravda:

David, age 2, of Greeley, Colorado was beaten to death. His adoptive mother claimed he hit himself with a wooden spoon. The adoptive mother was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Logan age 3, of Shelburne, Vermont died of massive head injuries. Adoptive mother pled no contest to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 1 year in prison.

Viktor age 6, of Hunterdon County, New Jersey died of cardiac arrest. Adoptive parents locked him overnight in an unheated pump room. Viktor was also severely beaten by his adoptive father.

Luke age 1.5 of Lowell, Indiana died of massive head injuries, shaken baby syndrome, and poor nutrition.

Jacob age 5, of Gloucester, New Jersey died of blunt force trauma to head, 2nd degree burns on feet, hemorrhaging in 1 eye; bruises, and seizures. Adoptive mother sentenced to 6 years.

Zachary age 2, of Braintree, Massachusetts, died of severe head trauma. Adoptive mother pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail with 18 months balance of sentence suspended for 4 years.

Jessica age 2, died from smothering. Adoptive mother claimed that she accidentally killed Jessica while trying to stop her from having a tantrum.

Liam age 3, of Columbus, Ohio, died from scalding and neglect. His adoptive father placed him in a tub of 140 degree water. He received 15-life for murder.

Alex age 6, of Illinois, was beaten to death by his U.S. adopted mother was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Dennis age 8, of Harford County, Maryland died after suffering cardiac arrest brought on by starvation. He weighed 37 pounds. Both parents were arrested and charged with manslaughter and first degree child abuse resulting in death.

Nina age 2, of Wake Forest, North Carolina died after suffering several blows to her abdomen. Her adoptive mother was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of her daughter.

http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?282945-Europe-Fears-Fallout-From-U.S.-Russia-Adoption-Tiff&p=3106773

The number of abused kids in Russian orphanages outnumbers this by thousands, with many of them no longer in the orphanages.

Would you be kind enough to give us some statistics Clay?

I

Clay - That comment might mean something if you could support it with some actual facts instead of empty accusations.

From the web site "Russian Life"

Plight of Russia's Orphans

Author: Linda DeLaine
Publication: Website
Date: Wednesday, March 01, 2000

Summary: The statistics regarding Russia's orphaned and/or abandoned children are quite disturbing with Americans making up the majority of foreign adoptive parents. Reforms have been implemented but do little to improve living conditions in Russia's orphanages. What does the future hold for these children?

Many prospective American adoptive parents turn to foreign adoption. It's not any less expensive, but often does not take as long as a domestic adoption. There are those who choose foreign adoption because they feel they can offer a better life to a child from an under privileged country. Rumors abound that many of these countries, including Russia, do not care about family, children and place a low value on human life. In the case of Russia, evidence the high abortion rate; roughly 70 percent higher than in the U.S.

Abortion has become the birth control of choice; a choice made because of circumstances. Birth control is available in Russia, but it is expensive, whereas abortions are free. The overall health of Russia is poor. With as much as 20 percent of young women suffering from anemia, many choose abortion because they fear that they and/or their baby will not survive a full term pregnancy.

Economics are a reality when it comes to pregnancy. The Russian economy has improved during 2000, but it has a ways to go before prospective parents will feel they can afford children. Many who don't believe in abortion for religious reasons or think they can figure out a way to care for a child will deliver, only to place their baby up for adoption. Most of these infants and children are adopted by non-Russian families, primarily in the United States. A population crisis is in the making with the number of Russian citizens dropping by 8 million from 1991 to 1999.

Observers and adoptive parents have accused Russian orphanages of neglect and abuse. The reality is, these orphanages are underfunded, understaffed and over populated with children. Roughly 230,000 children are residents of the state orphanage system with over 650,000 in some form of state care. Itar-Tass has reported that some 90 percent of children in orphanages are not true orphans as they do have living parents. Due to poor conditions, inadequate nutrition and insufficient emotional care, many of these children are underdeveloped mentally and physically. The older the child and the longer he/she is in the system, the greater the emotional and, often, physical problems become. Disease passed on by the birth mother is frequent. In one orphanage in central Russia, all but one out of a group of 30 children had syphilis.

In most orphanages, children are bathed together with no hot water available. They dine on porridge and bits of chicken with no fresh fruits, vegetables or red meat available. They sleep in wards of typically 12 children on old mattresses with ragged blankets. Many of these facilities are under heated and toys or other tools to stimulate a child's mind are scarce. Many of these orphans suffer from weakened immune systems and, thus, all manner of illness. Their mental, emotional and physical development often seriously stunted.

In an attempt to reform Russia's adoption system, then president Boris Yeltsin signed a new adoption law in 1998. This law was intended to place higher criteria on foreign adoptions and encourage more domestic adoptions. In brief, foreign adoption agencies have to be certified by Russia in order to conduct business there. Certification requires passing a laundry list of qualifications designed to cut down on corruption and, what amounted to baby selling. Furthermore, when a child becomes available for adoption, there is a five month wait period before that child can be made available to foreign prospective parents. It is hoped that, in that period of time, a Russian family will adopt the child. New laws and tighter restrictions do nothing to improve the conditions of the state orphanages; this requires money.

From 1992 through 1999, some 15,000 orphans were adopted by Americans. The total number of Russian children adopted by foreigners, in 1999, was 6,200; 4,300 of which were adopted by Americans. Children adopted by Russian families, not including those adopted by blood relatives, was around 7,000. The total number of orphans available for adoption in 1999 was ca. 80,000.

On March 3, 2000, President Putin chaired a special meeting of his Cabinet. The sole item on the agenda was Putin's mandate for improving conditions of Russia's orphans. The fact that a vast majority of Russia's orphans do, indeed, have parents indicates deep problems involving the family and paternity. Putin ordered his ministers to submit proposals regarding ways to improve conditions of abandoned and orphaned children. This was the first time anyone could remember when the president had focused exclusively on the plight of Russia's unwanted children.

The Russian government issued a decree on April 22, 2000. This new law mandates that potential adoptive parents must be represented by only accredited adoption agencies. While agencies scrambled to gain this accreditation, adoptions that were in progress were put on hold or rejected altogether by the Russian regional courts.

According to the Russian Statistic Agency, there were roughly 39.3 million children in Russia at the end of 1998. Of this number, 621,115 were orphans. About one-third, 230,000, were housed in 1,600 orphanages. What's worse, only 249 of these orphanages contained 19,300 toddlers under age 4. The Statistic Agency also reported that roughly 70 percent of all orphans were known to have and had been diagnosed with physical and/or mental disabilities.

Human Rights Watch continues to report countless cases of routine abuse of children in orphanages. Roughly 20,000 children run away from orphanages every year, according to the Interior Ministry University. This statement went on to say that of the ca.15,000 children released from orphanages annually, some 10 percent commit suicide, 30 percent commit crimes and 40 percent are unemployed and homeless. Do the math - this leaves only about 20 percent who are able to make it on their own.

It is fairly easy to count the number of Russian children living in orphanages. However, it is almost impossible to know exactly how many more children are living on the streets. Most of them pan handle or turn to prostitution to survive.

Adoptive parents were often not informed of their child's past or present medical problems let alone provided a medical history of the birth mother. Many such parents would sense problems when meeting their new son or daughter but reasoned that these were temporary issues which would go away once the child was home, well fed and nurtured. Sadly, this has not always been the case.

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Whoever you are, thank you. It seems that sometimes people are too quick to jump on Christians for something. What I was going by was what I heard about how many of these kids were sold to someone and God knows what happened to them. I suspected that the orphanages werent great either and you have confirmed what I thought. I hope people pray for the situation.

Clay, Before you feel too vindicated did you notice that the article is 10 years old. Even if we assume that there are still problems with Russioan Orphanages that doesn't excuse the actions of the woman sending an unattended 7 year old back on a plane. You were actually the one who brought religion into the issue for what purpose I'm not sure.

Believe me, no one is saying that what the woman did was ok.

I have little comment to make about the content of the posting. But I suggest both to the poster and to my fellow readers that the mere act of copying and pasting over 1100 words of another writer's work is intellectually dishonest. The source is not authoritative. And the sources source is disreputable.

The American hosted web site "Russian Life," from which all of that was copied and pasted does not cite the origin of its figures. The "Interior Ministry University," study mentioned isn't cited and the only references I can find to it are in the aforementioned article and another by the Deseret News, an organ of the LDS church. The "Interior Ministry University" is a school for law enforcement "training" and has been known for its anti-semitic stance. One textbook blamed the Jews for killing Stalin. Among other things it taught that "The fall of the USSR and appearance of the CIS on its territory made Hitler’s dream come true. What German Nazism couldn’t do, Zionism managed to accomplish.”

That textbook has been removed from the curriculum.

Let's use some common sense, my friends.

I have a comment to make myself. It is a known fact how many Russian kids are estimated to be involved in prostitution, pornography, etc and that many of these kids came from orphanages. It is certainly a lot more kids than the eleven or so mentioned by Dana above. My point was that there are probably many more abuses in the Russian system than there are by adoptive parents here in the U.S., and that what happened to this child who was sent back to Russia shouldnt necessarily be a reason to suspend U.S. adoptions. This was in addition to the info above on other problems in the Russian orphanage system. I was asked by several people for proof of what I was saying. I shouldnt have to give anything else as proof as to my point and I wont be doing so. One of the most important things we need to learn to be a man or a woman is to be able to say that we made a mistake and that we are sorry. To bring religion into this blog again, that is one of the most important lessons that Christ taught us. Thanks.

Clay, I'm not saying there aren't problems in Russian orphanage system. However, based on Dana's post clearly there is also more than just the one case here. Your support is 10 years old and it's reliability questionable. It sounds like their were kids being placed in bad homes. It might be wise for both sides to look at the procedures used to qualify parents for adoption and the overall process to better provide that any children adopted are going to good homes.

A more recent editorial from NYT--agrees with Clay in spirit and substance.

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A Safe, Loving Home

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Published: April 17, 2010

The story of Artyom Savelyev, the boy who was sent back to Russia by his American adoptive mother, is heart-wrenching. It is also threatening the dreams of thousands of other children and prospective families.
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Times Topics: Torry Ann Hansen

Artyom, who turned 8 on Friday, arrived in Moscow by plane this month, alone and with a note asking Russian authorities to take him back. His mother, Torry Ann Hansen, a nurse from Tennessee, wanted to return the boy to his orphanage, saying he had severe psychological problems. The family says that orphanage workers misled them about Artyom’s condition.

We do not know all the details. But returning a child like he was a damaged pair of pants is profoundly wrong.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said last week that the government had halted adoptions to the United States until stronger safeguards are in place in both countries. It is unclear whether the hold applies to all United States adoptions and how long it might last.

Since 1991, 50,000 Russian children have found homes here, the vast majority with happy endings. Right now, as many as 3,500 Russian children are in the adoption pipeline; the cases of 250 American families are near completion. They should not be penalized while authorities fix what are clearly worrisome problems.

This week, an American delegation will go to Russia to discuss ways to ensure that Artyom’s ordeal is not repeated. American adoption agencies do home studies on prospective parents. Russia also requires American agencies to do post-adoption assessments, but compliance is spotty. Moscow is expected to ask Washington to be the enforcer, a role it is not eager to take on. There should be more post-adoption oversight. And Washington should add a requirement that agencies provide access to follow-up counseling for parents.

The Russians need to fix their system. Many orphanages are overcrowded, with too few staff members and resources. Adoptive parents complain that they are not told key facts about their children. The Americans want to be sure adoption agencies and prospective parents have sufficient data — in advance — about a child’s health. The Kremlin can also prove its concern by providing more financial support and regulation of orphanages and anyone involved in the adoption process.

Russians are understandably sensitive about sending their children abroad. The Kremlin should find ways to encourage more Russian families to adopt. Denying orphaned children a chance for a loving home outside Russia would be a tragedy