New information on Dmitry Yakolev/Chase Harrison was published in the Russian press today.
The English language online edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda fills in some details of Dima’s history prior to his transport to the US–and in a few short words tells us something about the care of women and children in post Soviet Russia (something I could write more on, but won’t at this time). It also contradicts somewhat an earlier report in the Russian language Gazetta that authorities had been unable to place Dima domestically due to a “series of serious diseases.” Moreover (not mentioned in the article), the placing agency, European Adoption Consultants is a major Adoption Russian Style money generator, and if the orphanage director had the chance to pick up a hefty “donation” from the Harrisons, its Russian customers would be shown the door.
According to Komsomolskaya Pravda:
Dima had made a long journey from Russia’s Pechor Pskovsk region to the U.S. His new family lived in Herndon, Virginia outside Washington DC. First, it seemed that fate had dealt the boy a second chance. His biological mother had put him up for adoption immediately after his birth — even though she too was raised in an orphanage. Dima was moved straight from the labor ward to the Pskovsk Regional Orphanage for children with a damaged central nervous system.
“We received Dima in 2006 straight from the labor ward,” said Natalya Vishnevskaya, the head doctor at the orphanage. “His 18-year-old mother signed a refusal of the child and disappeared. It’s unclear where she is now. She is a mentally disabled, lonely young girl who was also raised in an orphanage.”
RIA Novistii reports comments from the Russian Foreign Ministry:
We hope that American law enforcement authorities and the court will exhaustively look into all the causes and circumstances surrounding this tragedy and take a just decision. We also hope that the relevant U.S. social services will draw the necessary conclusions from this.
Baby Love Child has excellent commentary of the Yakolev/Harrison case including thoughts on these two articles. Since I don’t want to be repetitious, I recommend you check out her last two blogs.
That said, I want to bring up a subject that she did, too: the allegation from Russian authorities that they learned of Dima’s death several days after it happened, and then only from reading about it in then in the newspaper. This, of course, ties in to reports, which imo, are mistaken, that the accreditation of European Adoption Consultants has been lifted due to failure to report Dima’s death immediately to the Ministry of Education and Science as required by Russian law. There simply would not have been enough time to investigate and remove EAC, who has been in Russia for years and undoubtedly has friend$ in high place$, between the time officials learned of the death and when news reports of its so-called expulsion were published. This does not mean that EAC isi not on the way out (which we’d all like to see), but that it hasn’t happened yet.
According to Kosmoslovkia Prvada:
Interestingly, the boy died Tuesday — one week ago. But news of the tragedy reached Russia only several days later. Employees of the Russian Embassy in the U.S. only learned what had happened from the papers.
For what it’s worth, here’s the news reporting timeline I have. This timeline is based on online news accounts only, and I have no idea when the Ministry or Embassy actually heard the news. I can very well imagine, though, that Embassy and Consular officials got the news from the July 10 WaPo, like most of us did, though Fox 5 and the Fairfax News had done a report on the 9th.
Death: July 8,2008
Fox 5 – July 9, 2008
Fairfax News – July 9, 2008
Washington Post– July 10, 2008
Washington Post – July 11, 2008
Novistii – July 11, 2008
Not until the July 11 WaPo were any Russian comments on the case published, so it appears nobody knew about Dima’s death until the 10th:
Yevgeniy V. Khorishko, press officer for the Russian Embassy, said consulate officials are “trying to figure out the details of this accident.”
We are in contact with U.S. officials in this case,” Khorishko said. Russian officials are also working to determine whether the boy still had Russian citizenship, he said.
That same day, the state-run RIA Novistii reported the death–the first Russian news report I’ve found online, but with no Ministry comments. The Russian language RCP News, also on July 11, reported the death and said that EAC and two other agencies had been kicked out, but did not source the claim. Same for the July 12 Russian language Gazetta except it sourced the Ministry via ITAR-TASS. I have been unable to find a story on the case on the English language ITAR-TASS site, though it may on the Russian language site which I can’t search. The first solidly sourced comments that I’ve found came in Monday’s English language Moscow Times—nearly a week after Dima died. (The sourcing is one of the reasons I believe EAC is only under investigation right now, not expelled).
From the Moscow Times:
Two U.S. adoption agencies have been barred from operating in Russia, but authorities denied Monday that the decision was linked to the recent death of an adopted baby in the United States.
The Education and Science Ministry said it had withdrawn the accreditation of the two agencies — the Cradle of Hope Adoption Center and Family and Children’s Agency — after inspections found that they had violated the law.
The ministry supplied a list of the purported violations, which primarily focused on failures to keep the ministry informed about the well-being of adopted children.
“For the first three years, they should inform the Russian education ministry about the situation regularly,” ministry spokesman Andrei Nedrov said.
He said the ministry was considering toughening the conditions for agencies seeking to reapply for licenses after being barred.
On July 15, a full week after Dima’s death, the Russian Foreign Ministry released an official statement (click on “News in English” to get to news site) which reads in part:
And even if in this case, as distinct from several previous, no deliberately cruel treatment of an adopted child is claimed to have been involved, but criminal neglect leading to a tragic outcome, the fact remains – a small citizen of Russia has died. We will duly track the entire course of the investigation and seek to ensure that it is fully objective.
We expect that American law enforcement bodies and the court will thoroughly look into all the causes and circumstances of the tragedy and adopt a just decision. We also hope that the appropriate US social services will draw the necessary conclusions from it.
We have repeatedly called on the American side to conclude a special bilateral agreement on adoptions. Such an international legal document will ensure more effective control over the fate of Russian children taken by adoptive parents to the US. We will persistently keep this issue on the agenda of Russian-American dialogue.
Clearly this is not going to go away. And the fact that it took so long for Russian officials to be informed of Dima’s death does not sit well with the already tense situation regarding Russian-US adoption. European Adoption Consultants, of course, has made no statement. Would we expect less? NCFA and JCICS must be buzzing.
ADDENDA: July 16, 8:00 AM: Here’s an interesting tidbit from today’s Examiner.com:
A spokesman for EAC declined to comment Tuesday, saying that the company is still trying to figure out what action the Russians have taken.
Reasonably, it would be assumed that if EAC doesn”t know what the Russian government has done, then it has not been expelled. Or are they stonewalling their customers? Or are the Russians just playing tit for tat?
“His biological mother had put him up for adoption immediately after his birth — even though she too was raised in an orphanage. Dima was moved straight from the labor ward to the Pskovsk Regional Orphanage for children with a damaged central nervous system.
“We received Dima in 2006 straight from the labor ward,” said Natalya Vishnevskaya, the head doctor at the orphanage. “His 18-year-old mother signed a refusal of the child and disappeared. It’s unclear where she is now. She is a mentally disabled, lonely young girl who was also raised in an orphanage.”
People dont understand do they ? that it just keeps perpetuating…
Besides that what does it mean here ? Dima was moved straight from the labor ward to the Pskovsk Regional Orphanage for children with a damaged central nervous system.
He had a damaged central nervous system ? why wasn’t THAT reported ?
I am trying to silence my thoughts on this one, but did the boy have some sort of disability ? some sort of less than perfect self ?
I am really starting to find the knots twirling in my stomach now..thinking of this….
This bothers me 🙁
In regards to a mentally disabled 18 year old getting pregnant, one has to wonder WHO Took advantage of her and Got her pregnant to start with…And also ….my thoughts ….people in THESE Situations should have something like that implamon given to them, the BC Implant. Maybe less babies like Dimitry would be born only to die 🙁
It’s funny, Jane, that most people seem to forget that most of us were taken for a ride by the fathers of our babies. It takes two to make a child and yet, the responsibility seems to always be heaped on the shoulders of the mothers. If this poor child’s mother had these kinds of problems, then she was used, badly.
Yes that is what i fear, 18 years old , institutionalized with mental problems 🙁 one can only imagine the horrors she went through. I guarantee it wasn’t her first *sexual experience* And i use that term loosely as i fear this girl was coerced into sex or worse raped
Bet there is a whole lot more than either the Russians or the Americans know.
Abuses that I would not even want to think about how horrible a situation like this is and NOT knowing the full truth about his mom, or Dima himself.
What is it with these agencies, in both countries, I can say it is all about making a buck..off anyone or any child.
Gale
wish my dil were here I would have her read Russian paper and translate for me. I think that in order for adoptions like these to go through there has to be a lot of crap covered up..to make it right or right for those who want to adopt.
Another reason I am against International Adoptions they are unscrupulous
Jane:
For myself, it was startling to read Dmitry’s orphanage claimed it was for children with a “Damaged Central Nervous System”. That was the NEAR EXACT language which was on Baby Home #2 in Perm where Cyril had been placed.
We put a picture of that plaque and posted it to our website.
I can sort of answer your question about the name of the orphanage. Usually the names of the orphanages have not changed since Soviet times. Some of the babies DO NOT have CNS issues – they are merely placed into the baby home if it is close by.
For instance, many of the children adopted from Cyril’s baby home DID NOT have CSN issues and are (allegedly) healthy. From what I’ve been told.
Dmitry, if he was being held for international adoption, may not have had any major issues. The orphanage director knew full well how much she could get out of an EAC client as opposed to a Russian family.
And the Harrisons were wealthy people who probably wanted a healthy baby. One hand washing the other.
My opinion from a bit of sad experience.
As for Dmitry’s First Mother – my thoughts mirrored yours and Robin’s.
E.Case
http://www.bewareofbbas.org
From EAC’s web site:
Q: Is EAC licensed to do adoptions in Russia?
A: EAC is currently awaiting our Re-Accreditation with the Russian Federation. EAC has received annual accreditation since 1994, when Russia began accreditation requirement for international agencies. EAC is optimistically waiting the issuance of our re-accreditation. We are continuing to complete the adoptions for our “in-process” families and are accepting applications to the Russia program so families will be paper ready to submit the dossier when our accreditation is received.
Currently, all international adoption agencies, excluding those with old accreditations that have yet to expire, are waiting for their accreditation from the Russian Federation. If you choose to go with an agency that is currently accredited, please be aware that by the time you’re ready to receive a referral, the accreditation from your chosen agency may have expired.
The most important question to ask is if they have received their NGO registration and are awaiting the submission of their accreditation paperwork. EAC has their NGO registration and will be ready to complete adoptions once the new procedures are put into affect and accreditations are issued in Russia.
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J.
For myself, it was startling to read Dmitry’s orphanage claimed it was for children with a “Damaged Central Nervous System”. That was the NEAR EXACT language which was on Baby Home #2 in Perm where Cyril had been placed.
That got me, too, and I have no idea what it means. As I wrote in the blog, a Russian language source said Dima suffered from a “series of serious diseases.” That might explain why he was there. But now we hear it was heart murmur.
I wonder that with the skyrocketing of abandonments in the FSU since the fall of the Old Regime that these specialized hospitals might just be used for other less specialized patients and residents.
I also know that hospitals aren’t always what their name implies. The Akron Children’s Hospital burn unit, for example, is a major burn care facility in the US and takes many adults.
There’s enough fault here to go around. And, of course, until the Russian government starts taking control of the situation it will only get worse. Back in the 1990s I saw a TV show about Russian orphnshrd when I lived in St Petersburg. The focus was on teenagers and whsy happens to them Out the door when they ae 16–with nothing. They likely go into the sex trade (girls and boys) various mafias, and if they are lucky, som horrible factory. They were considered a public safety issue then and they must certainly be now. Yeltsin destroyed everything and nothing will improve under Putin and his cronies.
And How much did those STUPID Adoptive Parents know of Dimitry’s *conditions* ? ? ?
Because if they knew he had serious medical problems……and they still were putting him in daycare or …..
If they didn’t know just how serious his condiiton was until coming back home and…and …. and …
OH GOD……….
Oh and also that agency Cradle of Hope is still Stating they are Accredited for Russia
We are pleased to announce that our Russian Accreditation was Approved June 27, 2007!