OREANDA-NEWS.  February 20, 2012. The unduly lenient sentence, issued on February 3 by the U.S. district court in Pennsylvania to Theresa McNulty, adoptive mother, who brutally abused her Russian adoptee, Dasha, arouses profound dissatisfaction and disapproval. This new case of violence in the United States against a child from Russia, about which the Department of State informed us only three years after the crime, and the subsequent verdict, inadequate for such a severe offense, raise serious concerns about the ability of the U.S. authorities to ensure effective protection of the rights and best interests of adopted children from Russia.

As the Russian Embassy in Washington DC managed to find out, yet on February 23, 2009, three-year-old Dasha was admitted to the hospital with second-degree burns covering 10 percent of her body, as well as with numerous injuries, scars and bruises on her head. A criminal investigation concluded that McNulty had regularly beaten and tortured her. However, though the facts of violence were confirmed in court and the adoptive mother never showed any remorse for her deeds, in the end she was sentenced to 23 months of imprisonment with the possibility of being released after the first eight months. At the same time according to Pennsylvania legislation, similar offenses are punishable by between five and 10 years imprisonment.

Against the backdrop of an unending series of crimes against adopted Russian children in the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the adoption procedures for the U.S. citizens should be suspended until the U.S. - Russia adoption agreement, signed on July 13, 2011, comes into force. The process can only be resumed when the mechanisms for monitoring and protecting the rights and interests of children, provided for in this Agreement, are really in place. We also find it necessary to consider amendments to the Family Code of the Russian Federation in order to toughen the requirements for foreign adoptive parents.