An American woman who adopted a seven-year-old Russian boy has rejected him and sent him back to Russia alone, after claiming the orphanage lied about his behavioural problems.
According to the Daily Mail, the young boy, Artem Saveliev, was adopted last year by the US couple from a "grim orphanage" and flown back to Tennessee. Yesterday his adoptive mother, 26-year-old nurse Torry-Ann Hansen, wrote a note detailing that she "no longer wished to parent this child" and placed him on a flight back to Russia alone.
The boy was not told that his new mother was rejecting him, and was instead assured that he was simply going on an excursion to Moscow. At the end of his flight, he was met by Russian police who read the note and took the boy into social care.
The note itself accused the director of the orphanage of lying about the true extend of the boy's behavioural problems. Authorities have stepped in to defend them, claiming that the boy doesn't have any problems other than being "flat-footed". It's also believed that the child has complained that his adoptive mother used to drag him around by his hair.
As if putting a seven-year-old child on a flight on his own wasn't bad enough, the mother also organised the boy be met by a tour guide she randomly found on the Internet once he reached the Russian airport, showing her complete disregard for his personal safety. Thankfully, the tour guide contacted the police.
The case highlights the issues with adoption procedures between countries. At the moment it's unclear whether any vetting procedures were put in place, although the adoption office claim she came across as a nice, kind woman, and that she even made the effort to learn some Russian. This isn't the first problem that's arisen from Russian adoption by American couples. Another case resulted in a two-year-old boy dying in a car when his father left him in temperatures of 30C.
Source: Daily Mail