MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Minister of Education and Science said in the lower house of parliament Wednesday that the country needed to reform its adoption agencies.
"Adoption agencies must be reformed to improve work in this field. We have drawn up the relevant proposals in collaboration with the State Duma committee on women, family and children, which I hope will be considered and approved in the near future," Andrei Fursenko said.
The minister stressed that the inefficiency of the current system of adoption thwarted the adoption of children by Russians.
"According to 2004 statistics, 300 adoption agencies out of 3,000 lacked child welfare experts, while 1,700 others had only one such expert each," Fursenko said.
Touching upon adoption by foreigners, the minister said Russian laws stipulated that foreign agencies operating in Russia must report on the living conditions of children taken into foreign families.
