Russia halts participation in US student exchange program
Published time: October 01, 2014 14:32
Reuters/Steve Dipaola
The Russian government has decided to pull out of a major student exchange
program with the US. The American side apparently violated the terms and
conditions, with a Russian schoolboy not returning home, having been adopted
by a gay couple.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a note to the US Embassy in
Moscow, saying that the country is canceling the largest US-Russian
educational exchange program, FLEX 2015-2016. Within its framework, high
school students from former USSR countries go to US for one academic year to
live in an ordinary middle-class American host family and to study in a
high school.
An unacceptable situation emerged as a result, when our [Russian] school
students were in fact subjected to the legislature of American states, where
minors were able to choose on their own and without their parents
permission their place for living or being adopted, the ministry's Special
Representative for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov said.
Russian Children's Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov points out that it is not clear
if a Russian pupil who went to America would return to his mother back in
Russia, as he had been adopted by a gay couple.
Astakhov notes that what happened conflicts with the standards of the
program. There were no legal grounds for the adoption.
US Ambassador John F. Tefft responded in a statement via the Moscow
embassys website that We deeply regret this decision by the Russian
government to end a program that for 21 years has built deep and strong
connections between the people of Russia and the United States.
More than 8,000 Russian teenagers have participated in the Future Leaders
Exchange program (FLEX) since its launch in 1992. Now it is being halted
for two years.
Meanwhile, the process of preparation for the preliminary tests that started
on September 10 and was scheduled to end in the middle of October was
underway all over Russia. Over 70,000 people from Russia, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan and seven other countries of the former USSR participated in the
competitive examination to enter FLEX. Financed by the US budget, the
program was destined to introduce younger generations to American culture
and values.
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