Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Russian Prosecutor May Strip U.S. Adoption Agencies' Accreditation

An orphan in the Russian city of Vladimir (file photo) (AFP)

PRAGUE, April 18, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Prosecutor-General's Office in Russia is proposing that 12 U.S. agencies be stripped of their accreditation.

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April 18, 2006

In a letter to Education Minister Andrei Fursenko, Deputy Prosecutor-General Sergei Fridinsky said all 12 had failed to report on the living conditions of the adoptees once in the United States.

Russian lawmakers and government officials have in recent years threatened to toughen adoption laws, claiming that children adopted by foreigners are often ill-treated. Critics in turn argue that toughening regulations would be detrimental to the thousands of children who are awaiting adoption in poorly equipped Russian orphanages.

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More