This is a 2014 interview (in Russian) of Pavel Astakhov – at the time, Putin’s special representative for Child Welfare questions. The tone of the interview is rather informative, subdued and non-accusatory.

I have no time to translate it in its entirety interview, but here are some interesting highlights:

- On the question of adoption ban for American citizen: Other countries have imposed ban on US adoptions: Romania, Rwanda, Nepal, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Moldova. He notes during the interview that no Western European country would ever consider putting French, German, British etc. kids for US adoptions. - Astakhov mentions in particular the case of Guatemala, which prohibits US adoptions since 2008 (quotation needed) – as an example of criminalization of the adoption process in the US. - On US adoption agencies: As a rule, they charge huge amounts of money. Our (Russian) investigations show that “parents” have to pay **between $35,000 and $120,000 **for a Russian child. **The price for a healthy, beautiful child, less than 3 years old starts at $100,000. **

• Mentions cases of double US-Russian nationals who adopt children in their capacity as Russian citizen, residing in Russia, then take them to the US. There are at least 9 known cases of Russian kids that have been shipped to the US illegally.

• On his interaction with US Department of State regarding Russian adoptions: The dialogue is stuck. State Department doesn’t just refuse cooperation. In June 2012, Russia and US have reached an agreement on establishing a common database for the some 61,000 adopted Russian kids currently living in the US, while remaining Russian citizen. However, in 2013, the State Department backtracked on the project and refused to provide any information regarding the welfare and the whereabouts of those kids. USSD also opposed access to Russian consulate representatives to the kids in cases in which their welfare has been threatened.

- On Montana “Kids Ranch” http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/eureka-ranch-at-center-of-debate-over-adoption-of-russian/article_51dc5764-5e74-11e2-854b-001a4bcf887a.html The owners have changed but the practices persist.