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Two nations are in an uproar over an American woman who returned her adopted son to his native Russia as though he was a defective item to be shipped back to a department store.
Seemingly happily matched at a Siberian orphanage last year, authorities were stunned to find that Torry-Ann Hansen of Tennessee sent her adopted 7-year-old son Artem Saveliev back home to Russia by himself with a note demanding the adoption be annulled, the U.K. Daily Mail reports.
The pale sandy-haired boy got off the plane in Moscow with no idea why he had been sent back.
According to the letter he had in his hand, Hansen accused the orphanage of lying to her about Artem’s mental condition and cared only about finding someone to adopt him.
“He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues/behaviors,” she wrote. “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 Russians deny her claims, admitting that the boy was stubborn but that his only disability was that he was "flat-footed."
Officials say they are appalled that a woman would take a child all the way from Siberia to Tennessee, promise him a new life, change his last name to hers, only to change her mind and ship him back.
Authorities are investigating how American immigration allowed the child to fly alone. They believe Hansen may have paid a man to meet the child at the airport and put him on a plane to Russia.
The officials who had supervised the adoption were stunned, according to the Daily Mail.
They told the paper that Hansen spent four full days with Artem under the eye of adoption workers before she was allowed to adopt him.
"It was clear that there was mutual affection, and it was good," said Vera Kuznetsova, the chief adoption officer in the region told the Daily Mail.
Hansen’s actions may put the kibosh on future Americans adoptions in Russia for a long time.
"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, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying.
While the authorities and diplomats attempt to sort out the mess of Artem’s citizenship and custody, he will be sent back into state care.
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."
The child's real mother was deprived of her parental rights because she was an alcoholic, officials said.
Seemingly happily matched at a Siberian orphanage last year, authorities were stunned to find that Torry-Ann Hansen of Tennessee sent her adopted 7-year-old son Artem Saveliev back home to Russia by himself with a note demanding the adoption be annulled, the U.K. Daily Mail reports.
The pale sandy-haired boy got off the plane in Moscow with no idea why he had been sent back.
According to the letter he had in his hand, Hansen accused the orphanage of lying to her about Artem’s mental condition and cared only about finding someone to adopt him.
“He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues/behaviors,” she wrote. “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 Russians deny her claims, admitting that the boy was stubborn but that his only disability was that he was "flat-footed."
Officials say they are appalled that a woman would take a child all the way from Siberia to Tennessee, promise him a new life, change his last name to hers, only to change her mind and ship him back.
Authorities are investigating how American immigration allowed the child to fly alone. They believe Hansen may have paid a man to meet the child at the airport and put him on a plane to Russia.
The officials who had supervised the adoption were stunned, according to the Daily Mail.
They told the paper that Hansen spent four full days with Artem under the eye of adoption workers before she was allowed to adopt him.
"It was clear that there was mutual affection, and it was good," said Vera Kuznetsova, the chief adoption officer in the region told the Daily Mail.
Hansen’s actions may put the kibosh on future Americans adoptions in Russia for a long time.
"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, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying.
While the authorities and diplomats attempt to sort out the mess of Artem’s citizenship and custody, he will be sent back into state care.
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."
The child's real mother was deprived of her parental rights because she was an alcoholic, officials said.
