FM statement cited what it described as unending series of crimes committed against adoptive children from Russia by US parents
Americans who want to adopt Russian children may be temporarily banned from doing so.
Russia's Foreign Ministry Saturday called for an immediate suspension of adoptions until a 2011 agreement with the United States is strengthened.
A statement cited what it described as an unending series of crimes committed against adoptive children from Russia by their U.S. parents. It also expressed outrage over a light prison term given to a Pennsylvania woman charged with beating her adoptive daughter. The girl was eventually hospitalized after suffering burns to 10 percent of her body.
Last November, Russia also criticized the verdict in the case of an American couple convicted in the death of a 7-year-old boy they adopted from Russia.
Michael and Nanette Craver were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the U.S. after their adopted son died of a brain injury in a hospital in 2009. The judge sentenced the couple to the 19 months they had already spent in prison.
Russian officials had previously threatened to suspend U.S. adoptions after a 2010 case in which a woman in Tennessee put her adopted Russian son on a plane back to Moscow alone, saying she could no longer cope with his violent behavior.
The ministry said adoptions would only resume if the U.S. agrees to let Russian monitors visit the homes of adopted children.
The Associated Press reports U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990s.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
