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Originally Posted By Igor Charny

Email response: burtsev@parlament.perm.ru
Dear Sirs,
I, Igor Charny from the city of Perm, Russia is writing to you.
It would be very interesting to receive the detailed information about
your impressions of Russia, what difficulties you met while adopting a
child in Russia and the USA, what the role of the agency was, if you
were satisfied with the quality of its work.

My interest is not accidental. The point is that I am the Head of the
charity fund ⌠Civil Initiative■. The fund ⌠Civil Initiative■ was founded
in 2001 by Oleg Burtsev for the purpose of the development of
noncommercial charitable activity.

Oleg Burtsev is a doctor by profession. He was elected as a deputy of
the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Region www.parliament.perm.ru
for the second time. Now he is the vice-president of the guardians board
of our fund.

During the time of its activity the fund has approved and carried out
the following charity programs: ⌠Sport against drugs■, ⌠Toys for
orphanages■ and many others.

I, Igor Charniy, the assistant of Oleg Burtsev, have higher pedagogical
education. Now I am a university student. My specialization is law. I am
working as a volunteer on the post of the Head of the fund. Among the
people who help our fund are experienced lawyers and volunteer students
who know foreign languages.

Though our fund was founded in Perm, now we carry out various humane
work in many Russian cities, mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

One of the various activities of our fund is charity work with the
purpose of giving help and support to schools and orphanages. We also do
our best to help children who don▓t have parents to find new families.

We communicate with people who appealed to us through agencies and we
know that they pay more than $10,000 for the procedure that is
practically free for married couples who appealed straight to us.

In this connection it would be interesting to know what in the adoption
process belongs to the agency, why some couples prefer to adopt children
independently and some prefer to appeal to agencies, what the role of
parents support groups is.

The point is that I think, nowadays in Russia there are conditions for
carrying out international adoption without any mediators, and it is
interesting for me to know the opinion of people who have their own
adoption experience in Russia.

I try to prove my point of view.
To carry out the adoption abroad, the USA citizen has to appeal to the
Regional Office Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he fills
in all necessary papers and gets permission to bring the child to the
USA territory (you can get more detailed information on this question on
site www.travel.state.gov or you can appeal to the regional office
Immigration and Naturalization Service). On this stage agencies can give
legal help, though many couples prefer to gather necessary documents
independently or with the help of the lawyer.

The more important role belongs to the agencies when a married couple
arrives in Russia. Fear of the unknown country, ignorance of the
government structure and the adoption procedure itself very often become
an insuperable barrier for independent adoption and people have to
appeal to mediators. Often agencies show the situation in dark colors
purposely to underline the importance of their service.
Really, earlier everything depended on the will of this or that official
because there were no necessary laws and the official could arbitrarily
quicken or hamper the adoption process. On such conditions the so-called
coordinators of international agencies tried to solve the problems they
faced, but, to be more exact, they gave bribes to officials of different
levels. Besides, agencies formed their own data base of children and
offered their service to adopt that very child the family chose.

Public opinion about such activity was rather contradictory. There
existed a strong fear that in this case we are speaking actually about
the children trade. The result of this public discussion was passing of
several laws that regulated an adoption activity (including
international adoption) precisely. It didn▓t leave any chance to the
officials to abuse power.

This process can be briefly described in the following way:
At first, there is an obligatory folder of documents that should be
presented at the regional Ministry of Education. An official can▓t
arbitrarily refuse to take this folder of documents!

Secondly, there is a regional data base of children who don▓t have
parents. If the documents folder, presented at the regional Ministry of
Education, answers all requirements, prospective adoptive parents are
admitted to the data base. The official can▓t arbitrarily refuse to
admit parents to the data base!

In the third place, after the candidates chose the child they like they
get permission to visit him.
An official can▓t refuse to visit a child or to conceal anything from
the data base. If he didn▓t bring information about a child into the
data base it is a criminal case!

In the fourth place, if they establish contact with the child and
prospective adoptive parents decided to adopt him, the case is given to
regional court. It should be mentioned that adoption processes in court
are usually held in the first place and are formal.
If the documents, presented by candidates on the first stage answer
necessary requirements, the judge can▓t refuse to adopt the child!

So, as you see, nowadays the procedure of international adoption in
Russia has strict legal regulations, doesn▓t take much time and doesn▓t
depend on the official▓s will. Besides, many services, earlier offered
by agencies, are considered to be criminal cases today (organization of
private data bases of children who don▓t have parents, the violation of
the procedure of admitting candidates to the state data base, not
bringing the information about the child into the data base etc.) The
adoption process itself is carried out only by the special state
establishments and that is why avoids any mediators.

The activity of accredited agencies is permitted, but their activity is
rather auxiliary because of some changes in legislation (organization of
the meeting in the airport, accommodation in the hotel, providing with
interpreters). It would be more right to call this activity the
organization of tourism, than the help in the adoption process.
Candidates are not more than 0,1% of tourists and businessmen who visit
our country every year. All of them use our hotels, interpreters, in
necessary cases, our lawyers. It doesn▓t matter for those who give such
services who his client is: a businessman or an adoption candidate (I
think you agree that an interpreter on the negotiations of buying or
selling something is not a mediator in this business affair, he is
responsible for the quality of his work and gets his money according to
the contract. An interpreter, hired by the candidate, is not also a
mediator in the relations of the candidate and establishments that carry
out the procedure, the same as the hotel where the candidate lives, and
the driver who provides transport during his stay in Russia).

There are no other functions now. It doesn▓t matter who you are: the
coordinator of an accredited agency or a driver, you don▓t take part in
adoption process, you also carry out auxiliary functions. The
legislation regulates the necessity of candidate▓s part in adoption
process. As I have already said, other services, provided by agencies,
are impossible (choice of this or that child or artificial ⌠holding■ of
a ⌠good■ variant for this very candidate). Really, agencies use people
fear of the unknown country, lack of knowledge of the government
structure and adoption procedure in Russia). It can be said, that they
organize serves, provided by other establishments: book room in the
hotel, provide transport etc.) But is not a peculiarity of an adoption
process. As I have already said, many thousands of foreign tourists and
businessmen use these services with the help of such famous mediators as
tourist companies.

In is not by chance that nowadays the great number of prospective
adoptive parents prefer the way of independent adoption. Nowadays in
Russia not only in the capital, but in many cities there is a developed
tourist business, that can satisfy all requirements and provide
conditions of comfortable stay for people with different levels of
income. In every city there is a great number of qualified lawyers and
interpreters. The arbitrariness of officials is limited by the law and
control of police.
So, if you in you social mission face people who want to adopt a child
in Russia, you can give them information that it is not necessary to pay
to mediators. Nowadays in Russia there is an opportunity to adopt a
child independently. You can tell them about an opportunity of
independent adoption even if you are satisfied with the work of the
agency who provided this procedure for you. Many people will prefer to
spend saved money for the needs of an adopted child.

We understand that it is difficult to make an important step without
help and we are ready to offer our help for the guests who come to
Russia.
Briefly it looks in the following way:
1. As I have already said, there is a folder of documents, that is
necessary to begin the adoption process (if you need it I can send you
the list of required papers). Prospective adoptive parents get the
permission for adoption independently or with the help of the lawyer in
the Regional office Immigration and Naturalization Service, complete the
documents folder required in Russia and send it to us. When we are sure
that it answers necessary requirements we invite the couple in Russia.
The state establishments have the centralized data base of children
without parents and it helps to make choice in one place and very
quickly. Now you don▓t need to spend weeks travelling around the vast
territories of Russia and presence of the great number of orphans make
the trips of prospective adoptive parents successful.

In every individual case we agree on the route, organize the meeting ,
book room in the hotel, choose an interpreter, give legal support on the
stage of the preparation to the adoption process ( the preparation of
documents, necessary measures of choosing a child, medical examination
in the medical institution authorized by American embassy, during the
adoption process we solve all organization problems that appear after
the adoption (visit to the American embassy to get visa for the adopted
child, seeing-off), organize the entertaining program. Our guests get
acquainted with the wonderful world of Russian culture.

Some of our guests prefer to visit capital cities of the country
(Moscow and St. Petersburg), some choose to go to Russian province. Each
of these variants has its own advantages and disadvantages (for example,
Moscow is one of the most ⌠expensive■ cities in the world for the
foreign guests).

It is not necessary to tell in details about the advantages of
travelling to one of these cities. In every city you can find many
interesting things for foreign tourists. For example, St. Petersburg is
often called ⌠Northern Venice■ for its magnificent architecture and many
canals. The adoption procedure and requirements to the documents are the
same in every region of Russia. In all of them we are happy to offer our
help for you. These duties are not hard for us. As I have said, we visit
these cities often, some of our collegues spend there more time than in
Perm. In some sense we can be called The Moscovites or St. Petersburg
citizens. We know the situation in these cities very well and it is not
difficult for us to agree upon the arrival of our guests.

Very often our guests fear to go to Russian province. But, believe me,
these fears are not right. Allow me, in this connection, to tell you
about the advantages of staying in Perm in more details.

In Perm Region exist various forms of giving families to children who
were left by their parents for this or that reason: wardship, foster
families, patronage upbringing. We are sure that a child should grow up
in the family and to reach this aim we are trying to use all the
opportunities including the international adoption.

In average every year more than 200 couples from all over the world go
through the adoption procedure in our region successfully. Some of them
appeal straight to us without any mediators; some with the help of
agencies. It should be also mentioned that in last years many people
want to adopt a child in province. It is not an accident. The point is
that the province with its quiet life gives more opportunities to get
acquainted with the country, people here are more open-hearted and
hospitable, the officials are not so corrupted. Besides, in Perm region
we can influence the officials of all levels, taking into consideration
that the chamberman of the guardians board of our fund has the leading
post in the legislative establishment of the region. It is one more
guarantee of a successful mission of our guests and the entertaining
program offered in Perm can satisfy the most demanding people.

Perm region is famous for its cultural traditions, theatres and museums.
In Perm our guests can visit:
- Perm State Opera and Ballet House named after Chaikovsky
(www.opera.permonline.ru), that is one of three leading musical theatres
in the country. It is famous both in Russia and abroad.
- Perm State Picture Gallery where you can see the world-famous
collection of wooden sculpture. The gallery is also one of the most
storehouses of masterpieces of Russian icon-painting and pictures in the
world (original works of Aivasovsky, Shishkin, Savrasov, Serov).
- The ethnographical museum of Khokhlovka where the unique wooden
buildings of the 17-19 centuries are gathered. In the museum, that is
situated on the territory of 42 hectares, folklore festivals take place
regularly (www.heritage.perm.ru/hohlovka/)
- Belogorsky St/ Nicolas masculine monastery that is situated on the
picturesque spurs of the Ural mountains (www.belgor.perm.ru)
- Kungur ice-cave √ the unique natural memorial. It is the only cave in
Europe open for tourists.
Very often our guests spend a fascinating week combining useful and
pleasant moments. In the daytime they visit children▓s homes, settle
juridical problems. In the evening they visit theatres, restaurants,
bouling-centres, sports competitions (Perm basketball club ⌠Ural-Great■
is the champion of Russia). During the adoption procedure you can avoid
some free days (preparation of the documents, waiting fore the day of
the process in court). These days our guests can spend usefully. In
summer they can make a two or three days trip on the comfortable yacht,
in winter they can spend these days on mountain-skiing resorts (the Ural
Mountains).

So, we can organize the work and the rest of our guests in the most
comfortable way.

However, in any case, the decision whether to appeal to straight to us
or to an agency should be made by a married couple. It depends, in most
cases, on the agency itself, on the people who work there, their
professional skills and decency. We communicate also with the
representatives of agencies. In principle, we are glad to meet every
opportunity to make life of children who do not have parents better. I
am open for contacts both with married couples and agencies dealing with
international adoption.

We are looking for every opportunity to find new contacts and we would
be grateful to you if you could help us. I admire your active position
in life. You didn▓t not only go through the difficult way of adoption
but you are ready to share your experience in this noble work.

If you are interested in my letter I ask you to answer my questions. If
you have any information about families who want to adopt a child in
Russia or you can recommend me any parent support group for establishing
contacts I ask you either to write to me or to give them my e-mail. May
be you have ideas about possible variants of co-operation. Any of your
proposals can be interesting. Possibly, you want to become the part of
the system that helps to solve such an important humane problem as the
creation of the family by international adoption.

Yours sincerely.
Igor Charny.