Adopt me tweets12/9/2023 Yet the Kremlin’s weaponization of intercountry adoption for political aims is nothing new.įor many years before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia employed intercountry adoption as a tool to execute broader foreign policy aims, including by holding leverage over foreign countries receiving Russian orphans, portraying an international image of a benevolent Russian state that protects orphans’ rights, and maintaining control over Russian adoptees abroad. The International Criminal Court even issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova due to their involvement in abducting Ukrainian children – a huge move against a United Nations Security Council member state. Many governments loudly decried this war crime and imposed additional sanctions due to Russia’s illegal deportations. Forcible transfer of children is considered genocide, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. In addition to the testimonies of Ukrainians and deported children themselves, external researchers identified at least 43 Russian facilities that receive deported Ukrainian children. It is believed that more than 19,500 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia while less than 400 children returned to Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian government. Russian foreign policy has weaponized adoption policies to advance the Kremlin’s political objectives. In 2022, Russian government forces began deporting more Ukrainian orphans to Russia and expedited the process for Russian parents to adopt Ukrainian children, making them de facto Russians. These tragic words represent thousands of Ukrainian children severed from their homeland. “I didn’t want to go, but no one asked me,” remarked a Ukrainian orphan deported to Russia after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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