German Chancellor Adopts Russian Girl

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has adopted a 3-year-old Russian girl, the German 
newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. The newspaper said the girl, Viktoria, came from a 
Russian orphanage. She has been living at Schroeder's private home in Hanover, together with 
his wife Doris Schroeder-Kopf and her 13-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, for 
several weeks. The child lived in a Russian orphanage before her adoption. Schroeder has had no 
biological children, but did help raise his third wife's two daughters. That marriage ended in 
1997.  Government spokesmen would not comment on the newspaper report, saying the story 
is purely personal.

"We have 200,000 children like her (Victoria), but unfortunately we don't have 200,000 
chancellors," said Boris Altshuler, director of Russia's Right of the Child advocacy group.