RUSSIA: From Russia, With Love

April 17, 2010

by Scott Simon

There's a news story this week that makes adoptive parents, including my wife and me, run to turn down the radio. If you're a family with young children who are adopted, you might want to do that now.

Artyom Savelyev turned 8 yesterday. He blew out the candles on his cake in the Moscow children's hospital where he has been kept since returning to -- or being returned by Torry Ann Hansen, the single mother in Tennessee who adopted him.

According to news reports, the boy flew alone bearing a note from Ms. Hansen that said, "I no longer wish to parent this child," because he was "mentally unstable."

Russian officials said they have suspended all U.S. adoptions of Russian children, but it is not clear this has actually been done. The overwhelming number of international adoptions of Russian children have been happy and successful.

Susan Branco Alvarado, a counselor who specializes in adoption, says her phone has been trilling all week. Children who have been adopted absorb the story from radio and television, at school and on the playground. Hearing about this little boy inflames anxieties their parents thought had been banished by sheer love. Their children worry that one day, no matter how happy and secure they are -- no matter how good they are -- they might be sent back.

Lyudmila Kochergina, director of the Moscow office of the adoption agency Children's Hope International, reminds us that many children who were abandoned have a right to be suspicious because, "they were once betrayed by adults.''

I have learned, more by being a father than a journalist, not to judge another parent from outside their family circle. I can imagine any parent feeling overwhelmed and even desperate. But my empathy falls short of putting a little boy alone on a plane with a note saying, "I no longer wish to parent this child," like some cruel contortion of the Paddington Bear story.

Adoptive parents may feel that our lives never really began until we took our children into our arms. But we should remember that some children have seen a lot of history before they ever met us. We love and root for them all the more.

Many Russians say they feel humiliated by international adoptions. But Lyudmila Kochergina says American and European families adopting Russian children have encouraged more Russian families to adopt, and that is good. The Russian Orphan Aid Foundation says there are 4 million orphaned or abandoned children in Russia today. Only a few thousand are even lucky enough to be in institutions.

The 3,000 American families now in some stage of adopting Russian children are a small number to ease a great need that I hope will not be stinted by a single outrageous case. Putting children who need love and care into families who crave a child's love is one of the great unfinished endeavors of the world.

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RUSSIA: Russian foster family to care for Artyom, rejected by U.S. mom

18:5116/04/2010

The 7-year-old Russian boy who arrived in Moscow alone on a plane from the United States after his U.S. adoptive family rejected him is to live with a Russian foster family, the Russian children's ombudsman told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"Artyom will be discharged from hospital and taken to a foster family next week," Pavel Astakhov said.

He did not give any further details about the foster family.

Astakhov said the boy has caught a slight cold, but managed to celebrate his eight birthday with enthusiasm in hospital.

He said the usually lengthy process of uniting an orphan with a foster family would be speeded up for Artyom in light of the circumstances.

Seven-year-old Artyom, who was adopted in the United States around six months ago, flew to Moscow on April 8 on his own after being accompanied to the plane in the United States by his adoptive grandmother. He was carrying a note from his former adoptive mother saying she would not take care of him any longer because he was "mentally unstable."

Multimedia

• Video:

  Artyom, who flew from the U.S. alone, celebrates his eighth birthday

• Video:

  Russian boy describes life with his adoptive mother in the US

MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)

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RUSSIA: Russia Suspends Adoptions by Americans

Published: April 15, 2010

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

MOSCOW — Russia formally announced on Thursday that it would suspend all adoptions of Russian children by Americans, responding to the case of a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Moscow alone last week by his adoptive mother in Tennessee. The case of the boy, who was named Artyom in Russia before he was adopted last year, has caused widespread anger here, and Russian officials said new regulations had to be put in place before adoptions by Americans could proceed.

The announcement by the Russian Foreign Ministry gave no indication about how long the suspension would last. The State Department in Washington is sending a high-level delegation to Moscow to hold talks on reaching an agreement, and both countries have expressed hope that the matter can be resolved quickly.

“Future adoptions of Russian children by citizens of the United States, which are now suspended, are possible only if such an agreement is reached,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, said at a briefing on Thursday.

Officials at the United States Embassy in Moscow said they had not received official notification of a suspension and were seeking more information from their Russian counterparts.

More than 250 American families have nearly completed the adoption process and were poised to pick up their Russian children, but their cases will not be allowed to conclude until the new rules are approved, Russian officials said.

In all, some 3,000 American families have begun the adoption process, according to the Joint Council on International Children’s Services. Russian officials said they would continue to accept applications and process paperwork from potential adoptive parents.

Russia was the third leading source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, after China and Ethiopia, officials said. More than 50,000 Russian children have been adopted by United States citizens since 1991, according to the United States Embassy.

Artyom, who was named Justin by his adoptive American mother, arrived in Moscow last week after flying by himself from Washington. He presented the authorities with a note from his adoptive mother in which she said she could no longer handle him.

The mother, Torry Ann Hansen, a registered nurse from Shelbyville, Tenn., said the boy was “violent and has severe psychopathic issues.” She added that she “was lied to and misled by the Russian orphanage workers” about his troubles.

The authorities in the United States are now investigating her conduct.

Russian authorities, who now have custody of the boy, have said he behaves normally and have harshly criticized Ms. Hansen for sending him back.

Cases of children adopted from Russia being harmed in the United States have received intense publicity here. Fourteen Russian children have died of abuse or neglect at their hands of the adoptive American parents since 1996, Russian officials said last year.

Last Friday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, calling Artyom’s case “the last straw” and said he was proposing the suspension.

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RUSSIA: Three new families instead of the lost one?

Three Moscow families wish to adopt 7-year-old Artyom, who was sent back to Russia by his adoptive mother, a US citizen, according to Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov.