US companies that offer opportunities to study in the United States via exchange programs have continued to operate in Russia despite the current ban on the activities of Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX), a program administered by the US Department of State, Mikhail Petrakov, the head of the crisis response department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2020) US companies that offer opportunities to study in the United States via exchange programs have continued to operate in Russia despite the current ban on the activities of Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX), a program administered by the US Department of State, Mikhail Petrakov, the head of the crisis response department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday.
In 2014, Russia suspended its participation in FLEX, after a Russian student had not come back home as scheduled after an LGBT couple offered to adopt him, "despite all the obligations of the United States to return children home to their families."
"After the FLEX program was suspended, the Americans, nevertheless, continued to work in Russia through their funds, bypassing the official authorities, somehow negotiating directly in the country and flying Russian children there [to the US], and finding host families for them," Petrakov said during a session of the Russian parliament's upper house, adding that the US state department did not cooperate after the Russian Foreign Ministry made contact.
Earlier in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Russian parents against sending their children for educational programs to the US since the two countries have no agreements that would protect these kids during their stay there.
The issue of Russian school children in the US became widely discussed after dozens of them were stranded there following the suspension of their educational programs amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. The foreign ministry has already evacuated some of these students.
