Friday, August 05, 2005

Pavlis case redux?

RIA Novosti has an in-depth article in English on the case of Peggy Sue Hilt, a Virginian accused of killing her adopted Russian daughter. I have no doubt this will become a cause celebre in the Russian media just like the Irma Pavlis case earlier this year, and will lead to more calls to clean up the Russian adoption business. All well and good (there are plenty of shady Russian purveyors of, as well as perhaps some less-than-squeaky-clean American seekers of, Russian adoptees), as long as people are able to steer clear of the anti-American tone which shone through in some of the coverage of the Pavlis case in the state-run media here. But I'm sure the temptation to bad-mouth the US will prove too great to resist for some Russian commentators. Everyone should remember that, while these horrible cases have occurred in the United States, we're reading about them because crimes committed against children are actually prosecuted in that country, as opposed to the situation in Russia, where it's easy to get cops to look the other way.

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