A set of charity events and festivals to mark World Children’s Day have been held across Russia to remind adults about their responsibilities to children and focus on burning issues.

Traditionally on June 1, Russia celebrates not only the first smile of summer, but also its 30 million youngest citizens, drawing attention to the importance of child welfare and the need to protect children’s future.

In order to emphasize the important role children play in the nation’s future, a whole range of special events throughout the country have been organized.

Photos of the celebrations in RT Galleries

The children’s festival was held in the Moscow oncology hospital – one of the largest clinics of this type in Europe treating children with cancer, and a memorial dedicated to children who died in the 2004 Beslan school siege was unveiled.

Many panel discussions and master classes were devoted to adoption, one of the key issues concerning children’s welfare in Russia – especially given the scandals connected with the issue recently.

Back in April, 7-year-old Russian Artyom Saveliev was sent alone on a plane from the US to Moscow by his adoptive mother with a note saying, “I refuse him”. The event caused a nationwide outrage in Russia which resulted in a US adoption freeze. Since then, the two countries have been holding a series of talks, but so far the parties have not arrived at a solution.

As the next round of the talks is to begin on June 2, Russian children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached soon, but he also raised concerns that it should be Russians adopting Russian children, not foreigners.

“Last year, Russians adopted some 9,000 children, while foreigners adopted around 4,000. These are rather good figures, but I would like foster parenting to develop more actively in Russia. We have too few children, and we can’t afford to give thousands of them to other countries every year,” Astakhov said.

However, Russian opinion research, conducted following the scandal, yield a surprising result: the majority of those questioned felt that it did not matter who adopted Russian orphans.

Spokeswoman of Public Research Centre Olga Kamenchuk believes this is both a shame and a tragedy for the country.

“Russia, which claims to be a great power with immense culture, education, and traditions, is letting our kids leave so easily. This, and having millions of orphans, is really a shame. Something should be done, that’s for sure,” Kamenchuk said.

Over 700,000 children are living currently in Russia without being cared for by their parents and 140,000 are kept in state institutions. The main reason for that is due to unwanted pregnancies. Single parents often refuse to keep their children, and if kids are born with disabilities, they are often given up instantly for state care. Experts say that parents often lack knowledge and do not believe that it is possible to give such children a good education and future.

Representative of UNICEF in Russia, Bertrand Bainvel, believes that the authorities should concentrate on providing help for families, rather than on developing the system of orphanages.

“Unfortunately, in most cases the state replaces families instead of supporting them. Of course, social workers are trying to help children, but it is impossible without realizing that in doing so, they are undermining the development of a child, who would be better raised in a family than in a orphanage,” Bainvel said.

Dream city for Russian children

Meanwhile, World Children’s Day celebrations are held all over the world. The International Expo in Shanghai – the biggest of its kind so far – has also taken part in the holiday. Participants from the Russian pavilion have organized numerous children-related activities in which Russian children join Chinese in dancing, performances, and master classes.

Another large Shanghai event is a video conference with Moscow and St. Petersburg representatives from Russia's government and public institutions whose aim is to create a children's dream city – the place where kids can play and feel safe.

As part of the program, the initiative called “Childhood” will examine all aspects of public live, business and politics dedicated to protecting and helping children enter adult life. For example, one key direction aims at urban planning making each street into a safe space with lots of learning opportunities.

“I think streets must be territories where children can play,” Mayor of Murmansk Sergey Subbotin said. “There are many interesting ways to do it and in Murmansk we will discuss all of them very soon.”

The participants of the conference also decided that the world of a child's imagination is no less important since toys, films and cartoons have a huge impact on children's development and therefore on the development of the nation.

“The creation of the environment for a children's imagination is important and particularly in retaining the national identity,” Deputy Head of State Duma Svetlana Zhurova said. “Our Russian specialty, our traditions. Through toys and television programmes, we must preserve our cultural heritage.”