Russian Adoption: Russian News For The Week of Feb. 5

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 in a Yekaterinburg hospital. The story on the BBC’s Web site also includes the cell phone video that triggered the investigation by Russian authorities. Reuters ran a story on Tuesday that Belarus will be raising the number of foreign adoptions that would be allowed every year. Citing Education Minister Alexander Radkov, Reuters put the new total at 150-200 adoptions, up from 30 last year. But Reuters was the only newswire with this story and the Belarus chat board on FRUA was circumspect.

In health news, The Moscow Times ran two stories about new efforts to find treatments for alcoholism. In the first, a scientist working near the Arctic Circle is trying to secure funding for a process to treat alcoholics with electromagnetic radiation. In the second story, also datelined from the same region, a scientist is exploring the medicinal properties of animals and plants there, including a lichen he feels could treat alcoholism.

In business, The St. Petersburg Times reported that a major bottler of Coca-Cola is weighing a partnership with a Russian beverage company to bottle kvas. If you have ever tasted kvas, your only question about this story may be “why?”. And something perhaps to help you over the jet lag of an adoption trip: The paper also noted that Starbucks announced plans to open 10 coffee shops in Russia this summer, its first foray into the country.

Friday’s New York Times has a story about the revival of dog fighting in Russia. Not a happy story for a dog lover, and animals rights activists in Russia are trying to get it banned. But promoters say no dogs, known as volkodavs because they are bred to be wolf killers for shepherds, are killed in the fights. In the fights that the Times writes about, none are killed or seriously injured.

And maybe good news for anyone who will travel by rail. AFX News says Russia has signed a deal with Italy’s Finmeccanica to build electric regional trains. The Russian railway chairman also told AFX he is talking with the Italian company about building high-speed trains.

In arts and culture, a debut novel that won Russia’s Debut Prize about six years back has been turned into an indie film with a Russian-British cast. “Bigga Than Ben” tells the tale of two Russian con artists in London. The Moscow Times says it will be shown at the Cinequest Film Festival in California next month.

And one last bit that I couldn’t pass up. MosNews ran a story about a man from the southern city of Voronezh who requested a divorce from his wife of 18 years after she made him pumpkin stew. He told the judge that he thought the dish was zucchini and was angry at the deception. The court granted his request.

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