PEAR is providing a summary of what is known at the time of this posting.
Scroll to bottom for updates
On April, 8, 2010, Russian media outlets broke the story of the return of a seven year old Russian male adoptee to Russia last week.(see articles http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-04-08/adopted-russian-child-returns.html http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/08/6183041.html and http://gazeta.ru/social/2010/04/08/3349271.shtml and Youtube interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRsjyWtUxXA&feature=youtube_gdata
The child was adopted by single mother Torry-Ann Hansen of Shelbybville, Tennessee in September 2009 from an orphanage in Partizansk in Russia’s Far East and was being homeschooled by his mother. The child was placed alone on a United Airlines flight from Washington DC to Moscow by his grandmother, Nancy Hansen,who paid a man $200 to receive him in the airport. The Gazeta article (http://gazeta.ru/social/2010/04/08/3349271.shtml) refers to a possible 6 month postplacement report that had been sent around two weeks prior by the agency indicating that everything was “good” with the child and the grandmother confirms a social worker visit in January 2010 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_adopted_boy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for the freeze of Russia adoptions to the US on Friday April 9, 2010.
The Russian education ministry also suspended the placing agency, World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), based in Washington state, for the duration of an investigation.
Local Tennessee police and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services are also currently investigating this case.
Other media sources for this summary include http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1264744/American-sends-adopted-Russian-boy-behavioural-problems.html, http://www.t-g.com/story/1625110.html , http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/american-torryann-hansen-_n_531477.html and http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_adopted_boy
PEAR will continue to monitor the story as it develops.
Update 1: The US Ambassador to Russia’s statement can be found at http://moscow.usembassy.gov/beyrle-st040910.html
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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