‘The
government is minded to facilitate family placements for children. We have a
growing number of families that are taking children on…the number of
institutions in which they are being brought up is decreasing’, declared the
prime minister of the Russian Federation on 15 December during a live broadcast
of the programme ‘The Conversation with Vladimir Continues’.

He
also observed that he was no fan of foreign adoptions of Russian children and
proposed that in future these should be ‘reduced to zero’. However, it was
necessary to improve the conditions under which children resident in boarding
institutions lived, to provide accommodation for orphans who reach adulthood and,
also, to encourage placements with Russian families. Vladimir Putin stressed
that the authorities did give foster families help, in particular by paying
allowances. According to government statistics, the number of Russian foster
families was growing (in 2010 around 72,000 children were placed for the
purpose). ‘This is a positive trend which we should support unconditionally’,
emphasised Mr Putin.

Elena
Alshanskaya, president of the charity, Voluntary Aid for Orphans, said during
an interview with an ASI correspondent that foreign adoption was still
preferable to life in a children’s home. ‘If there were an effective system of
family support in Russia, the vast majority of children would generally be
placed with foster families here and, moreover, would remain with their
families of origin in the first place’ she remarked. So she thinks that while
such a system is lacking in Russia it would be difficult to ‘reduce the number
of foreign adoptions to zero.’ The expert went on to express the view that: ‘We
are not working with families to ensure that as few children as possible end up
in children’s homes, nor are we are developing different forms of family living
for orphans. In this situation adoption abroad gives many children a real
opportunity to live in a family which our government does not afford them.’ If
a child has relatives in Russia then adoption abroad is not the best option.
‘If we were to practise all forms of family support and provide children with
family living arrangements, the number of foreign adoptions would automatically
diminish. However, improving the conditions under which children live in
boarding institutions is by itself no alternative to foreign adoption’,
asserted Ms Alshanskaya.

http://www.asi.org.ru/asi3%5Crws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/38FACDBA0DF1C1C2C325796700470CA9Rus