Good News, Bad News, and Positive Press

First the good news: Remember that the Russian Government revised the rules governing Permits for Adoption Activity last month? Late last week, the Russian Ministry of Education & Science (MoE) published a new policy document providing instructions and details for adoption agencies working under the Permit regime in Russia. This means that any agencies who were confused about how to respond to the new rules now have some official guidance.

Now the bad news: Also this week, the MoE suspended the permits held by two foreign adoption agencies and revoked a third. The suspended permits belong to Nightlight Christian Adoptions (USA) and Societe D'Adoption Quebecoise Une Grande Famille (Canada). A suspension requires the agency to stop adoption activity in Russia while the issues associated with the suspension are corrected, according to paragraph 14 of the rules governing permits contained in Government Decision No. 654 of November 4, 2006. The revoked permit belonged to Commonwealth Adoptions International, which closed down last year.

And finally, some positive press: Earlier this week, one of the big Russian television networks, First Channel, carried a news story about an American family that had adopted a little girl in Russia in the early 1990's. The little girl is now grown up, with a family of her own. But she has not forgotten her older brother, who still lives in Russia, and plans to visit him in Russia this year. It's rare positive press in a major Russian domestic media channel. The story begins with the statement that "usually we hear about the tragedies of our orphans adopted by Americans, but in reality, there are many more happy stories." The link above contains a Russian-language video clip of the story that was played on Russian television.