psychological problems and then be shocked that she couldn’t handle it. Even under the best circumstances, it’s hard to raise a child, nevermind one with attachment disorder resulting from institutionalization. What are your thoughts?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/anger-mom-adopted-boy-back-russia/story?id=10331728

You’re not the only one who noticed that Russia seems to be getting a free pass here.

They have an orphanage system that is very good at creating traumatized and mentally ill children (remember, this boy did say that he was abused at the orphanage he came from!) and ship them off to well meaning but ill-prepared adoptive parents in other countries. When those adoptions fail, (and a disproportaionate amount of adoptions from Russia *do* fail, as opposed to other international adoptive programs) they get to sit back and criticize the US.

I don’t think they’re "shocked", I think there’s a fair amount of political calculation that goes on. They certainly aren’t concerned about the thousands of children in Russian orphanages getting abused and neglected, but now that the international eye is on them, they’re outraged!

Don’t get me wrong. I think that the mother who put the child on the plane was dead wrong and I think it was criminal child abandonment. I also sympathize with people who have adopted seriously traumatized children and find themselves very much over their heads. There isn’t enough support out there for adoptive families. Adoptive parents "signed up for this", they aren’t supposed to need help because they are held to a higher standard. Adoptive parents are most often blamed when any adopted child has issues, even if they were not the cause. So, I can completely understand the feelings of desperation, even if I am condemning the action she took. Still, it never should have gotten that far in the first place.

But the way I see it, Russia is taking every ounce of political clout they can get over this incident. They’ll parade the boy around and praise how well he’s adjusted to his new Russian foster family. Even though they couldn’t find a Russian foster family *before* he was adopted by an American. Of course, if his mental health issues come up again with the Russian family, we’ll never hear about it.

Russia will do everything they can to avoid taking *any* responsibility for creating the environment that traumatized that boy because it’s more politically advantageous for them to blame the Americans. But they won’t stop international Adoptions because then they’d have to take a more serious look at their own institutionalization problems. Right now, they are destroying the children then leaving it to someone else to pick up the pieces.

United States family that sent their adopted Russian son back to his home country by himself is under fire. The move prompted Russia’s foreign minister to freeze all future United States Adoptions of Russian orphans. Russia says that the United States adoption regulations have fallen short and unfortunately this has not been the first Russian-US adoption gone wrong.

Duration : 0:5:25

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Technorati Tags: abandonment issues, adoption agency, adoption process, child, family, lauren lyster, mental illness, Mirah Riben, moscow, RT, rt america, Russia, Russia Today, Russian Adoption, the stork market, US

After all there are thousands of children here in the US that need parents, there’s no legitimate reason to be importing kids from foreign nations. Isn’t it time to provide for those born here first.

I’ll agree with that. It isn’t difficult to adopt here in America if you’re willing to adopt through through foster care. I know many family’s who have adopted several children fro foster care and they don’t have any more problems than a child adopted from a foreign country.

And You are so right there are thousands waiting to be adopted.

Bedford County (Tenn.) Sheriff Randall Boyce held a press conference after Torry and Nancy Hansen, the adoptive mother and grandmother of a 7-year-old Russian boy whom they sent back to Russia unaccompanied in an apparent attempt to undo the Adoption, canceled a scheduled appointment to discuss the case with Boyce. (Shelbyville Times-Gazette video by Brian Mosely)

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Technorati Tags: Adoption, Russia, shelbyville, TENNESSEE

Will Americans no longer be able to adopt Russian kids?

Right now they cannot. The US government is talking with the Russians to figure out a deal though, the Russians want more safeguards/rules put in place to prevent this from happening again. I think they will probably work it out but I don’t know how long it will take before Americans can adopt from Russia again. I haven’t seen any estimates or guesses really sorry.

MOSCOW — Russia threatened to suspend all adoptions by U.S. families Friday after a 7-year-old boy adopted by a Tennessee woman was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.

The boy, Artyom Savelyev, was put on a plane by his adoptive grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn.

“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,” Hansen said in a telephone interview. “It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother “the last straw” in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children in the United States died.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Dmitry Medvedev said the boy “fell into a very bad family.”

“It is a monstrous deed on the part of his adoptive parents. To take the kid and virtually throw him out with the airplane in the opposite direction and to say, ‘I’m sorry I could not cope with it, take everything back’ is not only immoral but also against the law,” Medvedev said.

The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported prominently. Russian main TV networks ran extensive reports on the latest incident in their main evening news shows.

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption — the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Wash.-based agency — for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, 33.

Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, almost 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States, and more than 60,000 Russian orphans have been successfully adopted overall, according to the National Council For Adoption, a U.S. adoption advocacy nonprofit group.

“We’re obviously very troubled by it,” U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington when asked about the boy’s case.

Asked if he thought a suspension by Russia was warranted, Crowley said, “If Russia does suspend cooperation on the adoption, that is its right. These are Russian citizens.”

“Child abandonment of any kind is reprehensible,” said Chuck Johnson, acting CEO of the National Council for Adoption. “The actions of this mother are especially troubling because an already vulnerable, innocent child has been further victimized.”

The boy arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital 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.

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 flight attendant 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.

“Russian Adoption Gone Wrong” “Mom Sends Adopted Son” “Back to Russia” “Russian Adoption” “Artyom Savelyev” “Russian Foreign Minister” “Sergey Lavrov” “adoptive grandmother” “Nancy Hansen” “P.J. Crowley” “ABC News” “George Stephanopoulos” “Dmitry Medvedev”

Russian Adoption Gone Wrong Mom Sends Adopted Son Back to Russia

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Technorati Tags: ABC News, adoptive grandmother, Artyom Savelyev, Back to Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, George Stephanopoulos, Mom Sends Adopted Son, Nancy Hansen, P.J. Crowley, Russian Adoption, Russian Adoption Gone Wrong, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov

So I’m adopted, I have been ever since birth. I know my mothers name, but I would like to get more information about her. I’ve looked back on my Adoption documents but the majority of them are in russian. I do know some information about her but I was wondering if their is a way I can find out more information. I asked my adoptive parents, but they do not know much about who my parents were.

If you live near a college or university, look for a Russian translator there. (Or put it up on Y!A – a lot of people here would help you out.)
Adoption issues in Russia are a rather hot topic right now. I’m not sure how forthcoming the Russian state would be with that information. Your best bet would be to post an internet/print ad in Russia, in the city of your mother’s birth.

He was clearly abused by the Russian Adoption agency and wad mentally derranged and violent.
He absolutely should have been sent back
when the boy was interviewed by a Russian dbag the boy said he cried when the mother pulled his hair. The interviewer said "your a man you shouldn’t cry"
that is a clear indication that Russia is still living in the stone age and have the intellectual capacity of an alcoholic cage fighter.
The Russian government has long been known as the most corrupt corporation in the world and the "last straw" is this recent sign that they have no place in this world.

I do! however i couldve been done a better way then just sending him back alone

Russia’s foreign minister wants a freeze of all Adoptions to the United States today after a young boy was abandoned and was sent back to Russia. Russia says the United States will have to look at its adoption regulations in order for American families to adopt Russian children again. Chuck Johnson says that there is now an investigation into the family from Tennessee.

Duration : 0:4:50

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Technorati Tags: abandonment issues, adoption process, adoption regulations, child, chuck johnson, family, lauren lyster, mental illness, moscow, national council for adoption, RT, rt america, Russia, Russia Today, Russian Adoption, TENNESSEE, US

Here’s the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/world/europe/10russia.html?hp

This part was the most heartbreaking:

"“Did you cry?” Mr. Astakhov asked.

“Yes,” Artyom said.

“You are a man, you shouldn’t cry,” Mr. Astakhov said."

Could you, by any chance, accept the American mother too?
I think she would fit right in at a Siberian prison camp…

It is not a nice situation at all but it might have happened anywhere with adoptive parents of any nationality. The crushing majority of those 60.000 Russian kids who were adopted by the American families had the chance of their life instead of rotting in our orphanages. Of course there should be more strict regulations on perspective parents vetting which must impose clear legal obligations on adoptive parents etc. However, as a person who is aware of the Russian realities I suspect there might be abuse of the existing rules within Russia itself because the financial aspect is involved. Each foreign adoptive family officially (!) pays up to $40K for an adopted child. To tell the truth I think the whole procedure is a string of bribe-giving. Anyway, the situation must be sorted out without that hysteria in the press.
Like in case with the Russian WWII veterans (who are remembered by the Russian authorities only once a year on the Victory Day) the whole campaign about this child looks as a hypocritical farce. If he wishes to shock the public Mr Astakhov had better investigate conditions for kids’ life in the Russian orphanages.