New Russian Law Re: Number of Children in Home and Monitary Support

This is a copy of a post from a Russian Adoption Forum


Dear adoptive parents,

As always, I would like to keep families informed about legislation regarding Russian

adoption.The new law "About Additional Support of the Families With Children" was

passed in Russia last week. It is officially published yesterday, December 31, 2006, and came in

force today, January 1, 2007.This law stipulates that a family having a second, third, etc. child

(birth or adopted) will receive large financial support from the Government. The amount is

250,000 rubles (About $10,000) as a one time payment. It is a very big sum of money for

Russian families (for some low-income families it is equal to 19 years income). This amount will

be indexed proportionally to inflation and in 5 years it will be about 350,000 rubles.This law has

already made an impact on Russian society. Hundreds of people have already announced their

desire to adopt children. According to the Russian media, last week alone most orphanages had

visitors (Russian citizens wishing to adopt), which was more than for an entire year.Many

people that had previously abandoned their children already informed the orphanages that they

want to take them back into their custody.Although this law is not about international adoption,

it can impact international adoption. More children, especially children that are relatively

healthy, will likely be adopted by Russian families.Some women that were due to deliver babies

in December are delaying their labor by taking medications (that is of course very risky for

children). Some women took a risk to deliver their babies unsupervised at home, to conceal the

fact of childbirth and then will claim that the child was born after January 1, 2007.It is quite

probable that some people will adopt children only for their own personal enrichment, but this

is now a law and it will work for the advantage of Russian citizens.

Irina M. O'Rear
Russian AttorneyTampa, FL
www.russialegal.comhttp://www.russialegal.comirina@russialegal.com
Author: "Adopting In Russia: Your Rights And The Law" http://www.russialegal.com/en_book.html