It has been depressing to watch the political games between the United States and Russia. Especially when innocent children are being used as ammunition.

Here is a quote from a recent Times article on Putin’s Commissar for Children’s rights in Russia.

In the past two weeks, a new twist on an old conspiracy theory has been making the rounds in the Russian media. It is a relic of Cold War spook stories about bloodthirsty Uncle Sam, and it posits that the U.S., in its hunger for natural resources, has come up with a cunning new plan to take over Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Over the course of several generations, the U.S. supposedly wants to adopt every Russian orphan in these desolate regions, and when the population has been sufficiently depleted, Americans will simply move in and conquer the land, taking over its vast supplies of oil, gas, diamonds and metals without spilling a drop of blood.

Surf around the Russian blogosphere, or meet a doomsayer in the Moscow subway, and you won’t have much trouble finding a version of this myth. What’s different this time is the source — Pavel Astakhov, the Kremlin commissar for children’s rights, has been pushing this theory on anyone willing to listen.

To read the full article go to Times.com