Russia Calls for Halt on U.S. Adoptions

Russia Calls for Halt on U.S. Adoptions
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Copyright by the New York Times
Published: April 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/world/europe/10russia.html?th&emc=th


MOSCOW — The boy was only 7, but he walked off the plane that arrived in Moscow from Washington all alone, carrying a knapsack with magic markers and candy, along with a single typewritten note. It was from a woman in Tennessee who had adopted him in Russia last year, became overwhelmed by what she described as his emotional problems and now wanted nothing more to do with him. Take him back, the note said.

“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,” she wrote.

The boy’s plight prompted the Russian government to say on Friday that it would suspend all adoptions of Russian children by Americans until safeguards could be put in place. Russia was the third leading source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, following China, with 3,001, and Ethiopia, with 2,277, according to State Department figures.

The boy, Artyom, who was named Justin by his adoptive American mother, landed in Moscow on Thursday, and Russian officials gained custody over him after he presented them with the note. His mother, Torry Ann Hansen, a registered nurse from Shelbyville, Tenn., wrote in the note that the boy “is violent and has severe psychopathic issues.” She added that she “was lied to and misled by the Russian orphanage workers” about his troubles.

Local officials in Tennessee said they did not believe that Ms. Hansen or his adoptive grandmother, Nancy Hansen, had records of child abuse or neglect, but would now examine their conduct in Artyom’s case.

As the boy’s return to Russia grew into an international incident, the Hansen family went into seclusion, leaving its house in Shelbyville and refusing to answer phone calls. Before that, Nancy Hansen told The Associated Press that the boy had been violent and abusive toward his mother in the United States.

“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 said. “It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible.”

Nancy Hansen said she accompanied the boy on a flight to Washington, where she then put him on a direct flight to Moscow on Wednesday, according to Russian and American officials here. She had found a guide over the Internet who for $200 agreed to pick up the child at the airport in Moscow and to drop him off at the Education Ministry.

She said they had not abandoned the child, having arranged for the airline to supervise him on the flight and for him to be picked up at the airport.

Foreign adoptions have long touched a sensitive nerve here. Russians often find it hard to accept that their country, which they consider a resurgent world power, cannot take care of its own children and has to give them up to outsiders.

On Friday, Russian state television broadcast a video in which the federal children’s ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, talked to Artyom, whose face was at times blurred to conceal his identity. A traditional Russian nesting doll had been placed squarely in the middle of the table where they were sitting.

Mr. Astakhov has a reputation for outspokenness, and he once led a group, “For Putin,” that fervently supported Vladimir V. Putin, the current prime minister and former president.

Speaking to Artyom in both Russian and English, Mr. Astakhov asked him about his adoptive mother. Artyom said she was “bad.”

“Did she hit you?” Mr. Astakhov asked.

Artyom said no, but he then motioned to show that she had pulled his hair.

“Did you cry?” Mr. Astakhov asked.

“Yes,” Artyom said.

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

Government doctors said that Artyom had not been physically abused. But Mr. Astakhov later told reporters that Artyom “needs to be rehabilitated. He needs good care now.”

Artyom was adopted from an orphanage in Russia’s Far East, near Vladivostok, where he lived after his mother, an alcoholic, lost her parental rights, officials said. Mr. Astakhov said Artyom would now be sent to an orphanage or a similar institution in Russia.

More than 50,000 Russian children have been adopted by United States citizens since 1991, according to statistics from the United States Embassy. The adoption rate peaked at 6,000 in 2003, and it then declined as screening procedures and other legal hurdles mounted.

Fourteen Russian children adopted by Americans have died of abuse since 1996, Russian officials said last year, and the cases have set off strong reactions here.

Russian officials criticized the American government last year after a Virginia man was acquitted of manslaughter in the death of his toddler son, who had been adopted in Russia. The boy died of heatstroke after his father left him in a parked vehicle for nine hours. On Friday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said he would propose that adoptions of Russian children by Americans be suspended until the Russian and American governments worked out a new agreement.

“We have for a long time proposed to the Americans that this be done, but they have constantly sidestepped it,” he said. “The latest case was the final straw.”

President Dmitri A. Medvedev, in an interview with “Good Morning America,” said, “We should understand what is going on with our children, or we will totally refrain from the practice” of allowing Americans to adopt.

The United State Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to Mr. Lavrov’s announcement. Earlier, the ambassador, John Beyrle, said he was “deeply shocked and outraged,” over what happened to Artyom.

Russian officials said they had suspended the license of the agency that coordinated Artyom’s adoption, the World Association for Children and Parents, which is based in Renton, Wash. Lillian Thogersen, the group’s president, said it was investigating, but said she could not discuss the details of the case.

“It’s one of the last things one would ever want for a child,” she said. “It’s heartrending.”

Ms. Thogersen said the agency had worked in Russia for 20 years, and it conducts home visits and provides support to parents after they bring children home.

An American couple who was nearing the end of the process of adopting a Russian baby reacted with despair to the news that Russia would suspend adoptions. The couple, who asked that their names not be used to avoid offending the Russian authorities, had already visited Moscow once to comply with legal procedures and was planning to return soon to receive the baby.

“My heart is sinking,” the father said. “We knew about laws changing in midstream, that these foreign governments are very bureaucratic, and that there is a lot of posturing that causes delays. But we picked Russia because it seemed like we had a pretty good chance. Now we don’t know what to do.”



Jack Healy contributed reporting from New York, and Bill Harless from Shelbyville, Tenn.