US Attorney General invited to Moscow to discuss child abuse

Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin has sent an invitation to the U.S. attorney general to pay a working visit to Russia to discuss criminal investigations into instances of violence against Russian children in the United States.

"Given the mutual desire to solve these problems and taking into account the agreements reached earlier, I would like to invite you to come to Russia on a working visit at any convenient time to discuss the situation and ways of dealing with it," Bastrykin said in a letter, posted on the Investigative Committee's website on Monday.

"Information should be provided on the U.S. attorneys' position on the crimes committed against adopted Russian children being probed in the United States," Bastrykin writes

Bastrykin also urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to speak about "measures being taken by attorneys to rule out violence against minors in the future."

Talks were held with Holder at the Investigative Committee headquarters on May 15 2012 during which "both parties noted that violence against adopted Russian children in the U.S. was a serious problem," Bastrykin writes.

"In accordance with the agreements reached, protection of children was named among the main aspects of interaction between the Russian Investigative Committee and the U.S. Department of Justice," he wrote.

Regrettably, "the unfavorable situation in this area has not changed any radically," he said.

The Investigative Committee has started criminal inquiries into violence committed in the U.S. against minors Sergei Nakonechny, Nikita Khoryakov, Dmitry Yakovlev, Ksenia Antonova, Yelena, Sergei, Leonid and Kristina Zhivodrov, Daniil Krichun, Ilya Kargyntsev, Anna Pochyotnaya, Ivan Skorobogatov and Maxim Babayev.

Nineteen Russian children have died through their American adoptive parents' fault since 1996.

Voice of Russia