The law of “grandparents”: the right to raise orphans in Russia will have to be proved

Are relatives more dangerous than strangers? After all, what do we actually have now?

For several days, all of Russia has been discussing a terrible story in Yekaterinburg: professional guardian Veronika Naumova is accused of killing her 6-year-old pupil. The woman claimed that the boy ran away from her home. More than 1,500 people were involved in the search, including volunteers, police, and representatives of the investigative committee. But in fact, the baby’s body had been lying in a bag in the garage for several months.

The guardian said that she had nothing to do with it, that the child died in an accident, and before that he was uncontrollable and aggressive (at 6 years old!), And she even wanted to refuse him. And although the circumstances of the incident have not yet been fully clarified, the suspect has already been charged under the article “murder of a minor” (paragraph “B”, part 2, article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), in “torturing a minor” (article 117 of the Criminal Code RF) and in “fraud” (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

A reasonable question arises: how did this lady go through the school of foster parents, how did she get the right to raise as many as three adopted children? What has the guardian been doing all this time? Why the problems in the foster family were not revealed in time – they were hardly insignificant, since everything ended in tragedy. It cannot be said that there were no alarm bells, especially since Naumova herself allegedly raised the issue of returning the naughty boy to the orphanage. Therefore, there were triggers. So why did none of those officials who were supposed to deal with this family do anything?

The questions are rhetorical. Which have been distributed in Russia for the past few years. What to do with the guardianship system in the Russian Federation, which does anything – seizing children from native mothers of large families that someone considered dysfunctional, climbing into families with the establishment of their own rules, up to what should be in the refrigerator, but not that what really needs to be done.

Why officials do not see any difference between relatives and other people’s guardians, starting with the requirements for blood relatives who want to raise orphans?

“It turns out that grandparents somehow coped with the upbringing of their parents, but in order to get their grandchildren under guardianship, they must go through the School of Foster Parents again?” Opponents of the bill ask.

There are no exceptions for the passage of the SPR for relatives, including relatives, are not provided. It is assumed that this measure will be implemented at the level of by-laws, and some third-party organizations, for example, NGOs, will deal with this issue, which creates opportunities for various manipulations. This measure, already tested in the activities of guardianship and guardianship authorities, will gradually be extended to all families in Russia without exception. Not only adopted, but also relatives. Unhindered, unrestricted intrusion into the private life of citizens, and the work of “escorting” families will be carried out by no one knows who.

In the future, the Ministry of Education, apparently, plans to further worsen the situation of blood guardians.

The bill provides for the possibility of compulsory (without the consent of the guardians or trustees, adoptive parents) the appointment of accompaniment of foster families by guardianship and guardianship authorities, including when it comes to families of close relatives of children.

At the same time, the criteria for non-profit organizations that will be involved in this process have not yet been clearly spelled out anywhere. But it is planned to allocate about a billion rubles a year from the budget for their activities.

But what about the traditional values ​​that we talk about so much? In words, solid bonds, but in reality, unknown comrades, who have no idea what kind of education and life experience, will decide whether the family is good or not.

Even Vyacheslav Volodin proposed that the closest relatives – grandparents, adult brothers and sisters, etc. – receive the preferential right to become guardians of underage orphans, without additional requirements.

“If you look at the submitted bill, it puts close relatives – grandparents – in the general list of persons who, in order to obtain guardianship, need to undergo psychological testing, prepare for guardianship, and have appropriate living conditions. If living conditions are cramped, they may not receive the right to guardianship, and the child will go to an orphanage. This is unacceptable,” the speaker of the State Duma said.

“Of course – and this includes the personal position of His Holiness the Patriarch – the requirements for grandparents, other close relatives who want to take children who have lost their father and mother into their families should be simplified as much as possible,” says Priest Fyodor Lukyanov, head of Patriarchal commission on family issues, protection of motherhood and childhood. – They should not be required to complete a mandatory training program – such requirements cannot be justified. There should be no talk about the possibility of some kind of involuntary external support for such families – neither from government officials or specialists, nor, moreover, from some non-state structures, which often have an openly juvenile orientation.

The authors of the bill refer to some secret presidential orders from 2017, on the basis of which this initiative was developed. But how to check that objective and truthful information about this was conveyed to the president. For example, the developers claim that allegedly close relatives return children to orphanages more often, but if you look at open statistics, you can see that this is at least not true.

The number of canceled decisions on the transfer of a child for upbringing to families of close relatives: in 2021 – 1431, in 2020 – 1339.

The total number of canceled decisions on the placement of a child for foster care in 2021 was 5988, in 2020 – 5507.

Thus, the number of canceled decisions on the transfer of a child for upbringing to families that are not families of close relatives amounted to:

in 2021 – 4567,

in 2020 – 4168.

Elementary arithmetic makes it possible to make sure that it is outside guardians who refuse foster children much more often.

How did the bill proposed by the Ministry of Education turn out to be not only scandalous, but also directly contradicting the traditional family values ​​proclaimed from above and the principles of state family policy, which have been repeatedly stated by the president and government. Who benefits?

After all, formally the Constitution of Russia declares the protection of family values ​​- people expect from the state real protection of the family and its sovereignty, the rights of parents, privacy – and not the strengthening of juvenile control and forced intervention in people’s lives.

Given the speed with which this bill is being adopted, it is possible that it is important as a “torpedo” projectile for amendments to the RF IC, as well as the Ten Senators Law, which would make such initiatives impossible and would remove threats to families and attempts to govern them.

“The child should remain in his own family – as it has always been! And no housing or other conditions can be an obstacle to a child staying with grandparents, brothers, sisters,” the parental community unanimously believes.

Activists write petitions demanding to postpone the adoption of the bill, but so far there is no real opportunity to somehow influence the situation. Fifteen days there will be a discussion and amendments, after which it will go to the second reading.