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Russia should ban US adoptions, if resolves own problems – chief rabbi

“Russia really has a huge problem with orphan children,” Berl Lazar said
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 27 (Itar-Tass) — It would be logic to adopt a retaliatory bill for theadoption banning the adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, when favourable conditions for adoptions are created inside the country, Russia’s chief rabbi Berl Lazar told a news conference on Thursday.

“Russia really has a huge problem with orphan children,” he said. “It is well known that many thousands of children remain in orphan houses. I believe that at first, it is necessary to resolve the problem inside the country and then to take some retaliatory steps.”

These actions should be certainly taken, the rabbi said.

“Russia simply has no choice to agree with those, who want to teach us, how we need to live and how to resolve our problems,” Lazar said.

At the same time he admitted that he felt shame for Russia that had not resolved the problem of orphan children yet.

“It’s a shame that the world looks at Russia as at a country that has many children who need adoptions. This is bad for Russia, this is a bad level of the country’s responsibility in general,” he said.

The rabbi noted that it would not cost much for the government to resolve this problem.

“These are small sums, but the society is still not ready,” he said. “Unfortunately, Russia has not yet developed understanding that it is necessary to think about these children. Families are not ready to adopt children.”