Blind Russian girl criticizes adoption ban

Concluding her post, Pisarenko called on Putin to adopt five or 10 children with serious congenital disorders.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by a local radio station as saying "Of course we will pay attention to such a statement.

"This girl is well known to us, she's known by the regional authorities and by the health ministry," he said.

Pisarenko and her parents have challenged authorities before, according to Russian media, notably when her parents agitated to have her educated at a regular school in her native Rostov-on-Don, rather than sending her away to a school for the blind. She's now in 10th grade, one year short of graduation under the Russian system.

In a later post, she expressed worry that her letter would cause her parents to be called in for questioning by regional authorities.

When The Associated Press on Monday asked her father, Nikolai, if Natasha could be interviewed, he said he had been ordered not to comment to news media, but declined to say who issued the order.

"Probably, I will regret that I wrote what I think," Natasha wrote in her blog on Saturday.

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Online:

Natasha Pisarenko's blog (in Russian): http://blindnatasha.livejournal.com.