ore than 700,000 orphans are living in 2,000 state-run orphanages. Of those, 95 percent have a living parent unable to or unwilling to care for them. That doesn't include the estimated 2 million to 4 million homeless orphans living on the streets and in railway stations.

More than 80 percent of Russian orphans in state care fall 2 or more years behind in school by the time they are 12 years old.

 

Of those who are not adopted and leave the orphanage between the ages of 16 and 18:

• 50 percent of the girls become prostitutes
• 40 percent of the children become addicted to drugs or alcohol
• 40 percent commit crimes
• 10 percent commit suicide

Just 1 in 10 former Russian orphans becomes a functional member of society.

• 132,500 children are abandoned to the state in Russia every year, up from roughly 67,000 in 1992.
• Nearly 4,640 Russian orphans were adopted by Americans in 2005, down from a record 5,865 in 2004.
• 13 out of every 100 children adopted by Russians are eventually returned to the orphanage.
• 40 million children in the former Soviet Union are living in poverty.

Sources: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Commission for Children at Risk, Human Rights Watch, European Children's Trust, Rosstat Agency