The information about the roundtable and its theme appeared in Izvestia, popular Moscow-based daily.
Aliens adopted 7,500 Russian children last year, which made 4 per cent of all orphans on the database. Russian nationals adopted a mere 7,331.
Family Code amendments, passed December last, prolonged by four months the term during which Russian nationals alone can adopt a child. The amendments are valid even for children who were due to leave Russia by the day the new regulations entered into force.
Prospective adopters have to get through a baffling red tape entanglement. That is why adoptions are so scanty, said Mr. Lukin.
The State Duma, parliament's lower house, intends to pass a bill on which Russia will have to make a bilateral agreement with each country whose nationals want to adopt Russian children. The affair sent the roundtable into heated debates. The arrangement will help Russia to monitor adopted kids' life abroad, and come to their help when necessary, argued Tamara Fraltsova, second in charge of the Duma committee for women's, children's and youth affairs. On the other hand, she admitted, it will be a big problem to make such agreements with certain countries. Thus, if a Russian-US agreement comes up, a special understanding will have to be made with every state.
If the bill gets onto a legal footing, US adoptions of Russian children may stop altogether, warned Thomas Atwood, US National Council for Adoption president.
