MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The number of children that can be adopted per family should not be artificially restricted to three, Russian Education Minister Olga Vasilyeva said on Monday as quoted by the ministry’s press service.

Earlier reports said a bill is underway that seeks to limit to three from January 1, 2020 the maximum number of children in the family adopting children, including adopted and their own children. Under the bill, only one child at a time can be adopted with the exception when brothers or sisters are adopted, or the children who have been growing up together in another family.

"I am adamantly opposed to numerical limits to three children, stipulated in the bill. This is a wrong-headed approach, and together with the document in general, it has not been coordinated either with me or with the Education Ministry, whose lineup is currently being shaped," the minister said. "Work on the document was carried out by Russia’s Ministry for Education and Science, on behalf of which it was sent to the regions for gathering opinions.

Vasilyeva said work on the bill would continue. Children’s Presidential Ombudsperson Anna Kuznetsova as well as representatives from specialized committees of the upper and lower houses of parliament, the Interior Ministry, the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutor’s Office are going to be involved in hammering out the document.

"The bill seeking to update the system of selecting foster parents is indeed being put together, and it contains a number of measures aimed to protect orphans and children left without parental care," she went on to say. "Among them is compulsory psychological examination, and not only for foster parent candidates, but also for those (family members) who live with them," the press service quoted the minister as saying.