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Russia cancels US student exchange

October 1, 2014

Russian authories have scrapped a longstanding student exchange program formed to foster understanding with its Cold War nemesis. The Kremlin claims that the US used the program to get around a Russian adoption law.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DOTM
Moskau Kreml
Image: Fotolia/Iva

The Russian government decided on Wednesday to ditch a 20 year-old exchange that sent Russian high school students to the US amid escalating tensions between the former Cold War enemies. According to a report in the AFP news agency, the Kremlin accused the US of encouraging a student to stay behind under the guardianship of a gay couple and therefore bypassing a Russian law banning adoption by gay parents.

"The child, who has a mother in Russia, has illegally been placed under guardianship, and the boy has been handed over to a US gay couple," Russia's children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said. Astakhov added that the boy was from a good background and was perfectly healthy, saying he could therefore see no arguments against him returning to his homeland.

US ambassador to Moscow John Tefft expressed his regret that the two-decade program was being shut down, saying the exchange had "built deep and strong connections between the people of Russia and the United States."

The Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) has sent over 8,000 Russian students to families in the US. In 2013 alone there were 14,000 applicants, of which only 238 were chosen to participate in the program.

Disrespecting Russian principles

Alumnae of the program, such as Kommersant newspaper correspondent Elena Chernenko, have lamented its suspension, saying the program fostered understanding and helped shed stereotypes. The US government, along with NGOs, sponsored a number of such exchanges since the fall of the Soviet Union in an effort to improve relations with its former foe.

The Kremlin forbade adoptions of Russian children by American couples in 2012. The law came in retaliation for a US statute which implicated several Russian officials in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower who exposed a connection between the police and organized crime. Since then Russia has tightened its regulations to include any country that allows gay marriage. The Russian foreign ministry has accused the US of using the FLEX program to circumvent Russian law, saying the US was therefore neglecting the "moral and ethical principles of Russian society."

es/msh (AFP, Reuters)