When asked about reports that Afghans had been abducted to the Soviet Union, Professor Ludwig Ademec of the University of Arizona, stated that he had read reports and heard stories to that effect. He explained that abducted Afghans were taken, often against their will, and enrolled in Soviet educational institutions. In this way the USSR hoped to develop a Communist cadre that would return to Afghanistan to run the country. He added that under the current political conditions in the USSR, it would not be possible for Soviet authorities to hold an Afghan in the Soviet Union against his or her will [Information received by telephone from Professor Ademec of the Department of Middle East Studies, University of Arizona, Tuscon, Arizona, 26 February 1990.]

According to the 1988 U.S. Department of State Country Reports, "the Soviet Union has taken thousands of Afghan children to the Soviet Union for political indoctrination in values that are alien to the Afghan people's Islamic heritage. This process has continued during the Soviet withdrawal [of 1988]." [U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989), p. 1267.]

A May 1986 Soviet report describes a Soviet family that had adopted an Afghan child, but does not provide details as to how many such adoptions have taken had taken place ["Soviet Family Adopts Afghan Orphan," Moscow home service (BBC Summary of World Broadcasts), 9 May 1986, SU/8254/A3/1.]