Moscow, July 15 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The number of US adoption agencies operating in Russia will be slashed under new guidelines agreed between the two countries, Russia's children rights ombudsman has said.
Pavel Astakhov said the current number of 67 agencies will drop threefold.
Under the accord signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Thursday, adoption agencies will have to be approved by Moscow, and will also be required to provide more information about a child's background to prospective parents.
There was an outrage in 2010 when an adoptive US mother sent a seven-year-old Russian boy back to Moscow unaccompanied, carrying a note that said she did not want him as he was "psychotic".
Russian authorities say at least 17 adopted Russian children have died in their adoptive US families since the early 1990s.