The U.S. has not yet received any official notification of a moratorium on adoptions from Russia, following a recent row over a Russian boy shipped back home alone by his adoptive U.S. family.
A spokesman for Russia's foreign ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, said on Thursday child adoptions by U.S. families had been suspended until the two states sign a bilateral agreement on adoption rules.
"We saw reports on the suspension of the child adoption procedures, but we have no information confirming this," a source in the embassy's press service told RIA Novosti.
The source said the embassy "continues to work with Russian officials, and a [U.S.] delegation will pay a visit to Russia next week to discuss adoption issues and conduct talks on the bilateral arrangement of the problem."
Russia suspended from April 9 the activities on its territory of the U.S. child adoption agency World Association for Children and Parents after a U.S. adoptive mother put her 7-year-old son on a plane and sent him back to Moscow alone. He brought a note in which the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen from Tennessee, said she would not take care of him any longer because he is "mentally unstable."
U.S. Consul General in Moscow Richard Beer told CNN that the situation with international adoptions in Russia remained largely unchanged.
"Adoptions are continuing here in Russia. Every day we issue more visas to American parents who are bringing Russian children to the United States to live in there with their new loving and caring family. There is no freeze, there is no moratorium," he said.
MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)
