MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) -One of Russia's most senior legal officials said Tuesday that foreign adoption agencies had broken the law on many occasions.
"A large number of violations were registered in the work of foreign agencies working in this sphere [adoption]," Sergei Fridinsky, the deputy prosecutor general, told a Moscow radio station.
Fridinsky said unaccredited activity, a failure to draft labor contracts and irregularities in the registration of adopted children were among the legal breaches.
"We are carrying out this work not because we want to stop foreigners adopting Russian children, but to prevent law being broken," Fridinsky said.
"It is utterly wrong to say that the prosecutor's office has decided to shut down the agencies and stop children from receiving treatment overseas," he continued. "The prosecutor's office is a body that monitors compliance with the law, and I see this role as meaning detecting and preventing violations."
The official stressed that foreigners had recently adopted more children than Russians had. For example, in 2004 foreigners took some 9,000 children into their families, whereas only 7,000 Russians became foster parents. According to him, the gap is widening every year.
Fridinsky also said that greater opportunities were often available to foreigners wanting to become foster parents.
He said groups of children were often taken for vacations overseas, where they stay in foreign families without the proper documentation.
"Before being registered, foreign adoption candidates have a chance to select children in breach of our legislation. Although the law prohibits this and favors Russian adopters such cases are not rare," Fridinsky said.
