MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to Dolgov, Russia has made many requests regarding the issue which were left unanswered by the US authorities. Some US adoptive parents avoid punishments for violating the children’s rights, while Washington provides no information on the investigation of "sales of underage Russians" online.
"All of these issues were yet again presented by the Russian side during the Russia-US consultations on bilateral relations in Moscow on September 14. Unfortunately, no clear answers were received. We are hoping that the United States will undertake specific practical steps to investigate violations of adopted Russian children, bring the perpetrators to real responsibility and will as promptly and fully inform Russia of the results of the investigation," Dolgov said in a statement.
He said that many Russian law enforcement bodies’ requests receive no response from the US authorities, which is a clear violation of the 1999 US-Russian treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
“As is widely known, Washington is evading bilateral consultations on the issue for the extensive discussion of the large number of the piled-up adoption problems in bilateral ties… In July 2016, the US Department of State and the Department of Justice again refused to carry out special meetings of the Russian interdepartmental delegation, under the specious excuse,” Dolgov said.
He added that Russia is ready to communicate on the issue despite the nonconstructive stance of the US authorities.
In 2015, then Russian children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said that US nationals had found ways to bypass the ban, mainly through mixed marriages.
