Finally, the leaders of our country and our children's homeland may be learning how to beat swords into plowshares. And it couldn’t have come at a more symbolic time for adoption.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the United States late Sunday afternoon, not in Washington and all things formal, but in Kennebunkport, Me., home to the family compound of U.S. President George Bush. According to the Associated Press, the meeting, which will last less than... more

Want to help your adopted child explore his or her Russian heritage? Here are some cultural events taking place in the U.S. this month.

The first event came up in my July search, but it appears to be a permanent exhibit. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has devoted a section of its gems and minerals collection to the gemstone sculptures created by Vasily Konovalenko. Many of the pieces draw on themes from Russian folk tales.

If you are in... more

Here's the flip side to the camp-to-adopt story I told you about this morning: summer camps for Russian children--sometimes orphans--held in Russia and staffed, at least in part, by American volunteers.

Adoption Ark, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., just wrapped up its fifth annual summer camp in Russia. It took 120 children, ages 6 to 16, from nine orphanages in the Ivanovo region to a three-week camp in the nearby town of Kleshevka. No, they didn't get to experience life... more

Summertime used to be filled with news of Russian orphans coming to the United States for summer camp programs that brought them into contact with prospective adoptive parents.

Not this year. Thanks to the uncertainty surrounding the re-accreditation of their adoption programs, all the stalwarts of the camp-to-adopt movement have put their programs on hiatus this summer. I've found only one camp-to-adopt program for kids from Russia that is running now, and I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

For some, the break will be permanent:... more

The news is almost all business this week.

As expected, British energy company BP sold its stake in a Siberian natural gas field to Russia's state-owned Gazprom. The reported $900 million price tag, which was labeled cheap by The Moscow Times, covers both the Kovykta gas field and the East Siberian Gas Company.

The agreement has been all... more

Where is it? Altai Krai, or territory, is located in Siberia, to the west of Krasnoyarsk. It is bordered by Kazahkstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and is separate from the Altai Republic. It is in the Novosibirsk time zone, which is three hours ahead of Moscow. You can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Barnaul, which has... more

I don’t often get the time to go back to posts I have already published. But the folks at Rotary International's OrphanAct charity have been keeping me posted on their outreach in Russia and, I am happy to report, it is continuing quite nicely.

You might remember that, back in February, I wrote about OrphanAct, which has been organized by a Rotary chapter in Hawaii to aid children in orphanages in Siberia and the Russian Far East. It was my first post in the philanthropy category, and I have been trying to honor its spirit every... more

When you travel to Russia on your adoption journeys, chances are good you'll be seeing a lot of in-flight movies. Particularly if you travel to the Russian Far East, as I did twice in 2005.

Now I realize that in-flight entertainment is rarely the best indication of a movie maker's cinematic prowess. Forgoing the standard G, PG-13, etc. ratings system, a dear friend of mine rates movies this way: Big Screen, Small Screen, Airplane and Airplane No Sound. And most of the movies I saw on my trips to Sakhalin definitely fell into the latter category. So it... more

You might remember that, about a month ago, I told you there were going to be some changes in the way the U.S. Embassy in Moscow processes visas for the children we adopt. Changes that add more time--at least 24 hours--to your wait in Moscow. Changes that add another night of hotel costs in what is the world's most expensive city for expatriate living.

Those changes... more

I passed through Lenin Square often when I was in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 2005. I'd cast a quick eye on the resolute statue of the Communist revolutionary on the way to the business center I used to send e-mails home during my two adoption trips.

But this past Saturday, June 23, Lenin Square got much more than a passing glance. Washington, D.C.-based charity Kidsave International used it as the kick-off point for a march involving 200 children from orphanages on Sakhalin... more