They should both be prosecuted.
Another scandal over adopted Russian child in US
9.04.2010, 15:36 |
Another scandalous case, concerning a child who was adopted by an American citizen, has triggered a new wave of anger in Russia. A 8-year-old boy, Artyom Savelyev, who does not speak Russian, has arrived in Russia from the USA alone with a note, saying that his adoptive mother had disowned him.
This outrageous case is not the first one in a long chain of abusive acts against Russian children, who were adopted by foreigners. But the Russian Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, who is currently finding out the details of this barbarous case, says he does not remember that such an act of cynicism - meaning that a little child was sent back alone across the ocean - has ever occurred before:
"The boy had with him only a covering letter, saying the adoptive mother was giving up her the adoption rights because she did not want to destroy herself, her family and her relationships, as she says".
Artyom's adoptive mother was a single woman, Torry Ann Hansen from the State of Tennessee. Both diplomats and journalists are trying to contact her now, aiming to find out what were the motives of her deed. As is known, the boy has arrived in Russia on a United Company flight. Protecting its passengers' interests, the company is providing no information about those who were on board, but says that all the procedures necessary for children traveling alone, or Unaccompanied Minor Service, were observed. A person, Artyom Savelyev was not acquainted with, met him in Moscow. He was found through the Internet, and he received 200 dollars for bringing the boy to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
In an interview for the Voice of Russia psychologist - Academician Sergei Klyuchnikov from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences - explains the possible motives for the action that was committed by the adoptive mother of Artyom Savelyev:
"Probably, the child proved to be a problematic one. I do not rule out that our services did not tell her frankly that the child had some problems, but she herself should have shown her will, attention and interest, and to weigh her own strength. The fact that the child was sent back demonstrates that a person - in this case, Torry Ann Hansen - has taken such a serious act as an adoption as an ordinary purchase and returned the boy, as if he were simply goods she did not like".
Artyom Savelyev lived in the USA under the name of Justin Hansen for 6 months. Earlier he was an inmate in an orphanage in Partizansk in the Maritime Territory in Russia. And most likely, he will have to return there. So much the better, because cruelties of adults to children are never justified.
According to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, 16 Russian children have died over the past 17 years through the fault of foreign adoptive parents. Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov and the deputies of the United Russia faction defend the toughening of the foreign adoption procedure. Likewise, a number of experts insist on the strengthening of control of Russian children, adopted by foreigners. Regrettably, for the time being such a practice does not exist in Russia. We receive nice accounts with spectacular photos of happy children. And then we learn that the children were beaten and humiliated or that they were treated like animals there.
Time will be needed for both Russia and America to study all the particulars of the difficult case of Artyom Savelyev as people in the USA are also angered with the behaviour of the adoptive mother of the young boy.
Source: Voice of Russia.
