Nurses Sought in Beatings at Russian Orphanage

Russian authorities have ordered the arrest of two nurses they said severely beat three young children at an orphanage during a night of drinking. One of the children, a 7-month-old, was wrapped in a sheet and stuffed in a plastic container to muffle the cries.

The other children, a 3-year-old boy and a 10-month-old girl, were hospitalized with multiple injuries, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Thursday. The 7-month-old child was initially in a coma. Their current conditions were not immediately known.

The beatings occurred at an orphanage in the far eastern Khabarovsk region on April 1, though the orphanage waited a week before reporting it to law enforcement officials, the committee said in a statement. It was unknown where the nurses were on Thursday, and warrants had been issued for their arrest.

The plight of orphans has become a sensitive and highly politicized topic in Russia. Most public discussion, though, has centered on foreign adoptions.

In December, lawmakers barred Americans from adopting Russian children in retaliation for a new American law aimed at punishing Russian human rights abuses. Even before that, the deaths of several adopted Russian children in the United States and elsewhere had prompted vocal calls to restrict foreign adoptions.

Meanwhile, critics say little has been done to improve conditions at Russian orphanages or to promote adoptions domestically. More than 600,000 Russian children live outside the custody of their biological parents, many in foster homes. But about 130,000, many with physical and mental health problems, live in orphanages, where they are sometimes neglected and abused.

It was not clear how many children lived at the orphanage in the Khabarovsk region, or whether there had been a history of abuse there.

Investigators said the beatings began after several children awoke during the night and started crying. The children were not found until the next morning, when other workers arrived. Only then were they were taken to the hospital.

On Thursday, Pavel A. Astakhov, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman, and the most vocal advocate of restricting foreign adoptions, said via Twitter that the claims of abuse “should be thoroughly investigated.”