MOSCOW — Russia would like to stop giving away its babies.

Within days or weeks, it will probably lift the suspension on adoptions by Americans that it formally announced Thursday. But eventually, as a senior Kremlin official said, the government needs to find a way to ensure that all Russia’s children stay in Russia. After all, how can a country with a shrinking population so readily surrender its very own to foreigners?

“We must, as much as possible, keep our children in our country, and keep them safe here,” said the official, Pavel A. Astakhov.

As the new children’s ombudsman in Russia, Mr. Astakhov has helped shape the government plan to tighten rules on adoptions, put in place after the uproar surrounding a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Russia by himself last week by a Tennessee woman who adopted him last year.

A celebrity lawyer and television personality, he has used his flair for the spotlight to make certain that the plight of the boy and other Russian children who have been mistreated abroad remains in the public eye. The cases are a prickly subject here, not just because the children have been taken away and abused, but also because the country has been unable to do anything about it.