MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russia launched only 14 investigations into crimes against Russian children adopted by foreigners in the past two years, while thousands of crimes have been committed against minors in Russia this year alone, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said Thursday.
Vladimir Markin said that in the first nine months of this year, Russian investigators launched inquiries into a total of 13,000 crimes committed against minors, including almost 400 murders and more than 3,200 sexual assaults.
A total of 169 criminal acts involving adopted children in Russia have been registered in 2012 and 2013. Nearly half of such crimes were sex-related, he said.
In comparison he said “a total of 14 criminal cases into attempts on the life or health of Russian children adopted by foreign nationals have been investigated in Russia in 2012 and 2013.”
Earlier this week, Russian authorities requested the United States to investigate reports by Reuters and NBC that alleged “blatant violations of rights of 26 adopted Russian children.”
Russia’s federal government banned adoptions by Americans in late 2012 in the so-called Dima Yakovlev law, named after a Russian toddler who died of heatstroke after his American adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours in 2008.
In June, Russia banned same-sex couples from adopting Russian children and subsequently halted international adoptions by citizens of countries where same-sex marriages are legal.
