7 Year old Russian boy sent back by his adoptive mother

MILK · 04-09-2010, 02:46 PM

Russia: Sending adopted boy back is 'last straw'
Buzz up!111 votes Send
Email IM Share
Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – ** CORRECTS BOYS AGE IN LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT INFORMATION ** In this image taken from Rossia 1 television … By NATALIYA VASILYEVA and KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writers Nataliya Vasilyeva And Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press Writers – 25 mins ago
MOSCOW – A top Russian official demanded that all child adoptions by U.S. families be frozen Friday after a woman from Tennessee shipped her 7-year-old adopted Russian grandson on a one-way flight back to Moscow all alone.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville, "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the United States. The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported with gusto.

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption — the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency — for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen.

Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States.

The boy, Artyom Savelyev, arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital on Friday for a health checkup and criticized his adoptive mother for abandoning him.

The Kremlin children's rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.

"This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues," the letter said. "I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. ...

"After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child."

The boy was adopted last September from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.

Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, told The Associated Press that she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter. She vehemently rejected assertions of child abandonment by Russian authorities, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines stewardess and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.

Speaking from the home in Shelbyville that she shares with her daughter, Nancy Hansen said a social worker checked on the boy in January and reported to Russian authorities that there were no problems. But after that, the grandmother said incidents of hitting, kicking, spitting began to escalate, along with threats.

"He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible."

Nancy Hansen said she and her daughter, a single mother, went to Russia together to adopt the boy, and she believes information about his behavioral problems was withheld from her daughter.

"The Russian orphanage officials completed lied to her because they wanted to get rid of him," Nancy Hansen said.

She also said the boy was very skinny when they picked him up, and he told them he had been beaten with a broom handle at the orphanage.

Russian state television on Friday showed the child in a yellow jacket holding the hands of two chaperones as he left a police precinct and entered a van bound for a Moscow medical clinic.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "very angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that they had legally adopted."

Anna Orlova, a spokeswoman for Kremlin's Children Rights Commissioner, told The Associated Press that she visited the boy on Friday and he told her that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.

Russian officials said he turned up at the door of the Russian Education and Science Ministry on Thursday afternoon accompanied by a Russian man who handed over the boy and his documents, then left, officials said. The child holds a Russian passport with a U.S. visa that expired April 4, Russian officials said.

Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, said the agency is looking into Friday's allegations, although it does not handle international adoptions.

Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce also said Torry Hansen is under investigation although no charges have been filed. Officers were expected to interview her Friday afternoon.

Lavrov said his ministry would recommend that the U.S. 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 USA sign an international agreement" on the conditions for adoptions and the obligations of host families, Lavrov was quoted as saying.

He said the U.S. had refused to negotiate such an accord in the past but "the recent event was the last straw."

Pavel Astakhov, the children rights commissioner, said in a televised interview Friday that a treaty is vital to protect Russian citizens in other countries.

"How can we prosecute a person who abused the rights of a Russian child abroad? If there was an adoption treaty in place, we would have legal means to protect Russian children abroad," he said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. adoption agency involved, the World Association for Children and Parents, did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Despite the uproar over adoptions, placing children inside Russia remains difficult. There are more than 740,000 children without parental custody in Russia, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

United Airlines disavowed any responsibility for the international incident. The airline said it requires a parent or guardian dropping off a child for a flight to show an ID and to list who is picking the child up at the destination. The airline allows unaccompanied children as young as 5 years old on direct flights.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said all unaccompanied minors on the flight that arrived Thursday in Moscow were picked up by the person listed on the form.

Previous adoption failures have increased Russian officials' wariness of adoptions to the U.S.

In 2006, Peggy Sue Hilt of Manassas, Virginia, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fatally beating a 2-year-old girl adopted from Siberia months earlier.

In 2008, Kimberly Emelyantsev of Tooele, Utah, was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to killing a Russian infant in her care.

And in March of this year, prosecutors in Pennsylvania met with a Russian diplomats to discuss how to handle the case of a couple accused of killing their 7-year-old adopted Russian son at their home near the town of Dillsburg.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/...ia_adopted_boy
___________

Trip · 04-09-2010, 02:56 PM

Just read that on yahoo, impossible to know who is telling the truth. The USA doesn't give a shit though. Russia's panties are in a wad. The little kid may be a serial killer. And the family are assholes.

pauldun170 · 04-09-2010, 03:03 PM

A former co-worker went through something simliar when they tried to adopt a russian boy.
It didn't work out for similar reasons.

they were from the sticks though.
Obviously if they were intelligent city elitist (vs country bumpkins) they would have picked themselves up a nice chinese baby.

MILK · 04-09-2010, 03:17 PM

This story is so wrong in so many ways. I have seen firsthand how angry children that age can be. One that was abused the first 7 years of his life I can not imagine. To think any mother could 'give back' a child disturbs me too. We don't know what lengths she did or did not do to help him if he had serious issues.

I know some also that adopted 2 Russian boys. I was not close with her but I do remember her telling me that one of the boys was rarely touched at his orphanage. There were simply not enough people working there to give the children proper attention - they did good to keep up with feeding and changing diapers. You can really screw up a child that way, they need to be cared for other than just the basics.

Having a son that just turned 8 the story just makes me hurt for that little boy. He's been abandoned by everyone.

Avatard · 04-09-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trip

Just read that on yahoo, impossible to know who is telling the truth. The USA doesn't give a shit though. Russia's panties are in a wad. The little kid may be a serial killer. And the family are assholes.

Sounds like all parties concerned should just call it a wash, and they should just try and find another nice family's house for the kid to try and burn down. Maybe something made of stone...maybe a nice British family.

BobTheBiker · 04-09-2010, 03:26 PM

From what I read, the adpotive mother is a fucktard undeserving of children, and the kid might have issues. the question I dont see asked is, why, if she observed this behavior did she perhaps not attempt to take the boy to a psychologist for help? I mean thats fuckin common sense to me.

AquaPython · 04-09-2010, 05:02 PM

stupid of the mother to adopt a kid that old. "life is like a box of chocolates..."

Apoc · 04-09-2010, 09:17 PM

Ya, why would anyone adopt a kid that old? I mean I know, they all deserve a chance, but if I was going to adopt, i'd want a baby. You never know what kind of hell that child went through to make him the way he is. At least if you had it as an infant, you know what kind of life it had.

But, we dont know what kind of problems this kid had. Its easy for us to judge them sending him back, but maybe he's a true psycho. Would you keep a child that wasnt yours, if you were seriously worried it might slit your throat while you sleep? Or severely harm your other children?

When adopting a grown child, the parents should at least have a psychiatric evaluation done on the child, from a professional they trust. Kids without guidance, without a family, without anyone to teach them right from wrong, that can be bad.

I have no idea what the adoptive parents are like, maybe they are the ones with the problem. But im not going to judge till I have more facts on the child, the family, and the orphanage that raised him.

karl_1052 · 04-10-2010, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apoc

im not going to judge till I have more facts on the child, the family, and the orphanage that raised him.

TRUTH

Three sides to every story.

Rangerscott · 04-10-2010, 03:06 PM

Soooooooooooo.....do we Americans get discounts for adopting foreign instead of adopting the thousands of orphans here in our own country?

04-09-2010, 02:46 PM	#1
MILK The cows want you dead. Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 2,087	7 Year old Russian boy sent back by his adoptive mother Russia: Sending adopted boy back is 'last straw' Buzz up!111 votes Send Email IM Share Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – CORRECTS BOYS AGE IN LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT INFORMATION In this image taken from Rossia 1 television … By NATALIYA VASILYEVA and KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writers Nataliya Vasilyeva And Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press Writers – 25 mins ago MOSCOW – A top Russian official demanded that all child adoptions by U.S. families be frozen Friday after a woman from Tennessee shipped her 7-year-old adopted Russian grandson on a one-way flight back to Moscow all alone. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville, "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the United States. The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported with gusto. The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption — the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency — for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen. Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States. The boy, Artyom Savelyev, arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital on Friday for a health checkup and criticized his adoptive mother for abandoning him. The Kremlin children's rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems. "This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues," the letter said. "I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. ... "After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child." The boy was adopted last September from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East. Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, told The Associated Press that she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter. She vehemently rejected assertions of child abandonment by Russian authorities, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines stewardess and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry. Speaking from the home in Shelbyville that she shares with her daughter, Nancy Hansen said a social worker checked on the boy in January and reported to Russian authorities that there were no problems. But after that, the grandmother said incidents of hitting, kicking, spitting began to escalate, along with threats. "He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible." Nancy Hansen said she and her daughter, a single mother, went to Russia together to adopt the boy, and she believes information about his behavioral problems was withheld from her daughter. "The Russian orphanage officials completed lied to her because they wanted to get rid of him," Nancy Hansen said. She also said the boy was very skinny when they picked him up, and he told them he had been beaten with a broom handle at the orphanage. Russian state television on Friday showed the child in a yellow jacket holding the hands of two chaperones as he left a police precinct and entered a van bound for a Moscow medical clinic. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "very angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that they had legally adopted." Anna Orlova, a spokeswoman for Kremlin's Children Rights Commissioner, told The Associated Press that she visited the boy on Friday and he told her that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair. Russian officials said he turned up at the door of the Russian Education and Science Ministry on Thursday afternoon accompanied by a Russian man who handed over the boy and his documents, then left, officials said. The child holds a Russian passport with a U.S. visa that expired April 4, Russian officials said. Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, said the agency is looking into Friday's allegations, although it does not handle international adoptions. Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce also said Torry Hansen is under investigation although no charges have been filed. Officers were expected to interview her Friday afternoon. Lavrov said his ministry would recommend that the U.S. 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 USA sign an international agreement" on the conditions for adoptions and the obligations of host families, Lavrov was quoted as saying. He said the U.S. had refused to negotiate such an accord in the past but "the recent event was the last straw." Pavel Astakhov, the children rights commissioner, said in a televised interview Friday that a treaty is vital to protect Russian citizens in other countries. "How can we prosecute a person who abused the rights of a Russian child abroad? If there was an adoption treaty in place, we would have legal means to protect Russian children abroad," he said. A spokeswoman for the U.S. adoption agency involved, the World Association for Children and Parents, did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press. Despite the uproar over adoptions, placing children inside Russia remains difficult. There are more than 740,000 children without parental custody in Russia, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. United Airlines disavowed any responsibility for the international incident. The airline said it requires a parent or guardian dropping off a child for a flight to show an ID and to list who is picking the child up at the destination. The airline allows unaccompanied children as young as 5 years old on direct flights. United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said all unaccompanied minors on the flight that arrived Thursday in Moscow were picked up by the person listed on the form. Previous adoption failures have increased Russian officials' wariness of adoptions to the U.S. In 2006, Peggy Sue Hilt of Manassas, Virginia, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fatally beating a 2-year-old girl adopted from Siberia months earlier. In 2008, Kimberly Emelyantsev of Tooele, Utah, was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to killing a Russian infant in her care. And in March of this year, prosecutors in Pennsylvania met with a Russian diplomats to discuss how to handle the case of a couple accused of killing their 7-year-old adopted Russian son at their home near the town of Dillsburg. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/...ia_adopted_boy ___________

04-09-2010, 03:17 PM	#4
MILK The cows want you dead. Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 2,087	This story is so wrong in so many ways. I have seen firsthand how angry children that age can be. One that was abused the first 7 years of his life I can not imagine. To think any mother could 'give back' a child disturbs me too. We don't know what lengths she did or did not do to help him if he had serious issues. I know some also that adopted 2 Russian boys. I was not close with her but I do remember her telling me that one of the boys was rarely touched at his orphanage. There were simply not enough people working there to give the children proper attention - they did good to keep up with feeding and changing diapers. You can really screw up a child that way, they need to be cared for other than just the basics. Having a son that just turned 8 the story just makes me hurt for that little boy. He's been abandoned by everyone. Last edited by MILK; 04-09-2010 at 03:21 PM..

04-09-2010, 09:17 PM	#8
Apoc For Science. You Monster. Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Canada Moto: '08 HD FLSTSB Posts: 3,546	Ya, why would anyone adopt a kid that old? I mean I know, they all deserve a chance, but if I was going to adopt, i'd want a baby. You never know what kind of hell that child went through to make him the way he is. At least if you had it as an infant, you know what kind of life it had. But, we dont know what kind of problems this kid had. Its easy for us to judge them sending him back, but maybe he's a true psycho. Would you keep a child that wasnt yours, if you were seriously worried it might slit your throat while you sleep? Or severely harm your other children? When adopting a grown child, the parents should at least have a psychiatric evaluation done on the child, from a professional they trust. Kids without guidance, without a family, without anyone to teach them right from wrong, that can be bad. I have no idea what the adoptive parents are like, maybe they are the ones with the problem. But im not going to judge till I have more facts on the child, the family, and the orphanage that raised him. __________________ Android OS causes gay. Dont let your child use Android (unless she's a hot female). And dont let your babies grow up to be cowboys, either.

04-09-2010, 02:56 PM	#2
Trip Hold mah beer! Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: 80 Miles South of Moto Heaven Moto: 08 R1200GS Posts: 23,268	Just read that on yahoo, impossible to know who is telling the truth. The USA doesn't give a shit though. Russia's panties are in a wad. The little kid may be a serial killer. And the family are assholes.

04-09-2010, 03:26 PM	#6
BobTheBiker too much time on my hands Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: the northern district of god damn Moto: 01 ZX6R, looking for more now. Posts: 1,802	From what I read, the adpotive mother is a fucktard undeserving of children, and the kid might have issues. the question I dont see asked is, why, if she observed this behavior did she perhaps not attempt to take the boy to a psychologist for help? I mean thats fuckin common sense to me.

04-10-2010, 03:06 PM	#10
Rangerscott Viff6N Mutated Warrior Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Texas Moto: '01 Honda VFR 800 & '09 ER-6N Posts: 8,704	Soooooooooooo.....do we Americans get discounts for adopting foreign instead of adopting the thousands of orphans here in our own country?