Granny defends returning adopted Russian boy
Source: Agencies |
April 10, 2010, Saturday
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The grandmother of an adopted boy who was sent back to Russia alone on an airplane says the child was violent and angry with his mother in the United States.
Nancy Hansen said yesterday from her home in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that she put the child on a plane to Russia with a note from her daughter. She says the family paid a man US$200 to pick the boy up at the airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.
Hansen says the boy Artyom Savelyev, known as Justin to his adoptive family, was sent back to the ministry because the family thought officials there could take care of him. She says it wasn't child abandonment because a stewardess was watching the boy on the flight and a reputable person picked him up in Russia.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia should freeze all child adoptions with US families following the eight-year-old's one-way flight back to Russia.
Savelyev arrived in Moscow unaccompanied on Thursday on a flight from Washington, the Kremlin children's rights office said yesterday.
The children's office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.
John Beyrle, US ambassador to Russia, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that it had legally adopted."
The boy is now in the hospital in northern Moscow for a checkup, Anna Orlova, spokeswoman for the Kremlin's children rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov, said.
Orlova, who visited Savelyev yesterday, said the child reported that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.
Savelyev was adopted late September last year from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.
Lavrov said in televised remarks that the ministry would recommend that the US and Russia hammer out an agreement before any new adoptions are allowed.
"We have taken the decision ... to suggest a freeze on any adoptions to American families until Russia and the US sign an international agreement" on the conditions for adoptions and the obligations of host families. Lavrov said the US had refused to negotiate such an accord in the past but "the recent event was the last straw."
Nancy Hansen said yesterday from her home in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that she put the child on a plane to Russia with a note from her daughter. She says the family paid a man US$200 to pick the boy up at the airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.
Hansen says the boy Artyom Savelyev, known as Justin to his adoptive family, was sent back to the ministry because the family thought officials there could take care of him. She says it wasn't child abandonment because a stewardess was watching the boy on the flight and a reputable person picked him up in Russia.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia should freeze all child adoptions with US families following the eight-year-old's one-way flight back to Russia.
Savelyev arrived in Moscow unaccompanied on Thursday on a flight from Washington, the Kremlin children's rights office said yesterday.
The children's office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.
John Beyrle, US ambassador to Russia, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that it had legally adopted."
The boy is now in the hospital in northern Moscow for a checkup, Anna Orlova, spokeswoman for the Kremlin's children rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov, said.
Orlova, who visited Savelyev yesterday, said the child reported that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.
Savelyev was adopted late September last year from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.
Lavrov said in televised remarks that the ministry would recommend that the US and Russia hammer out an agreement before any new adoptions are allowed.
"We have taken the decision ... to suggest a freeze on any adoptions to American families until Russia and the US sign an international agreement" on the conditions for adoptions and the obligations of host families. Lavrov said the US had refused to negotiate such an accord in the past but "the recent event was the last straw."
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