There was a lot of saber rattling in Russia--and about Russia--this week.

On Monday, a top Russian general warned that Poland and the Czech Republic could be targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to Washington's plan to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic. Also on Monday, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia would boost its arms sales... more

Here's the news from and about Russia this week.

The New York Times kicked off Sunday with an account of Russian President Vladimir Putin's hard-nosed speech about U.S. foreign policy. Under the headline "Putin Says U.S. Is Undermining Global Stability", the Times said that Putin accused Washington, among other things, of provoking a new nuclear arms race. The Russian... more

Earlier this week, I wrote about some of the news sources I track for journalistic information about Russia. Every Friday afternoon, I'll sum up the main news developments of the week there, adoption-related and not. Here's what happened during the week of Feb. 5:

In adoption news, the BBC on Wednesday posted perhaps the most complete account yet of the mistreatment of border babies... more

The first time I went to Russia was in the summer of 1982 and staying on top of the news was an exercise in futility. This was before Gorbachev, before perestroika, before glasnost and before much of anything in the way of an independent press. Pravda contained all the news the Kremlin deemed fit to print, and its slant on the story was so far out in, well, left field that we took to acting out a story on the bus as we toured every day. "Comrades," someone would intone, "the people have won a great victory in metal manufacturing."... more

Hooray for Mikhail Zurabov! Mikhail who, you ask?

Mikhail Zurabov is Russia's Minister for Health and Social Development, and on January 19, he announced that his family is going to adopt a second child. According to Russia's ITAR-Tass news service, the Zurabovs have two biological children and a two-year-old son, who was adopted.

Zurabov, who has taken quite a beating in the Russia press lately for his ideas on health... more

It happened just before Christmas. A sad tale of an American family stranded by their adoption intermediaries. This family had worked for two years to welcome a new child to their family. Now instead of building a life with that child, they are suing their former agency, alleging it did not have the proper credentials at the time they began to work with it. Nobody wants their adoption journey to end like that.

What are the proper credentials? The most important word for anybody... more

My colleague over at Ethiopia Adoptions was recently ruminating on the poverty in that country. Russia is not nearly as badly off as Ethiopia, but the economic differences between the United States and Russia have shocked many people on their adoption journeys.

According to the CIA Factbook, Russia's per capita income in 2006 was an estimated $12,100. That puts Russia 81st on its list of all countries... more