Dual Russian/US Citizen Returns Adopted Twin Toddlers to Russian Adoption Authority UPDATED

Hmmmmm…….

“A pair of 15-month-old twins was returned to a St. Petersburg adoption authorities by an unidentified man, the city’s child ombudsman said on Tuesday.

The babies were adopted by a St. Petersburg resident last October. The adoptive mother, however, faced legal problems after a probe revealed that she failed to notify authorities about her dual Russian-U.S. citizenship as well as having an American husband.

The woman was originally advised to get a letter of consent from her husband before the adoption. It was unclear how she was able to document the adoption without her husband’s involvement.

“However, she decided… to abandon the twins. Moreover, she decided not to do this in person,” the ombudsman said.

A probe has been launched and the woman was put on a wanted list. The babies are currently under medical supervision in a children’s hospital.”

Twins Returned to Adoption Agency’s Doorstep
[RIA Novosti 2/28/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:”Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman has called for a full ban on US adoptions of Russian children. The move follows an American couple’s shocking decision to abandon baby twins on the cold streets of Saint Petersburg.

Children’s Right Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov demanded “the suspension of the issuance of documents on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens” until a bilateral agreement on child adoptions between Russia and the US is ratified.

His strong words came after a Russian citizen holding a US passport abandoned her adopted children in Saint Petersburg this week.

According to reports, an unidentified man brought the children to a Saint Petersburg custodial organization on Monday with a note saying the kids’ “foster mother had given them up.”

A search warrant has been issued for the woman, who had concealed the fact that she was a US citizen married to a foreigner when she adopted the children.

“This US citizen’s immoral and illegal act is destroying the work done by the US to bring order to adoption issues. Unfortunately, the US is currently unable to protect children adopted in Russia,” Astakhov’s press service said, Interfax reports.

Saying the two children were adopted by an “absolutely immoral person,” Astakhov further went on to say that “people should lose their US citizenship over such actions.”

The latest outrage follows a stream of instances where adopted Russian children were mistreated at the hands of adoptive US parents.

In March 2010, an American couple was arrested for systematically torturing their three adopted daughters.

The same year, Russia suspended adoptions after a Tennessee woman put her unaccompanied 7 year-old adopted son on a flight back to Russia because she didn’t want him anymore.

Last July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a bilateral agreement on child adoptions. The agreement will require psychological testing for the adoptive parents, and require them to adopt strictly through accredited adoption agencies.

However, the agreement is yet to be ratified by Russian lawmakers.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign ministry had also said the adoption of Russian children by US citizens should be put on hold until the bilateral agreement is ratified.The ministry’s statement followed the decision by a Pennsylvania court to give “an unreasonably soft sentence” to a woman convicted of viciously abusing her adopted daughter.”

Left out in the cold: Russian official demands full ban on US adoptions

[RT 2/29/12 by Reuters / Ilya Naymushin]

Update 2: After Pavel’s announcement, Children’s Hope International agency has stopped taking Russian adoption applications. See their website.

According to Hunt for American woman who dumped adopted Russian twins on freezing street with just a note saying: ‘I’ve given them up’ [Daily Mail 3/12/12 by Will Stewart], the adoptive mother is on the lam. ”

Twins adopted by an American woman, 28, were found abandoned on a freezing Russian street with a note saying she no longer wanted them.

Sasha and Masha are just 15 months old and the ‘cruelty’ of the mother’s rejection has led to a demand from the Kremlin’s children’s tsar Pavel Astakhov for a total ban on adoptions to American parents.

He branded the woman – who has not been identified and is now on the run – as an ‘absolutely immoral person’, and the case has been dubbed an ‘outrage’ by the Russian media.”

“It has alarming echoes of a 2010 episode in which Tennessee woman Torry Hansen sent her adopted seven-year-old Russian son Artem Saveliev on a plane back to Moscow alone with a message saying: ‘I no longer wish to parent this child.’

Custodial staff in Russia’s second city of St Petersburg discovered the twins – a boy and a girl – in sub-zero temperatures close to the front door of their institution. ”

‘An unidentified man brought them in a pram and left quickly,’ said the city’s children’s ombudsman Svetlana Agapitova.

A note found with the twins said she had ‘given them up’, it was reported.

‘She decided to abandon the twins. Moreover, she opted not to do this in person,’ Ms Agapitova said.

The twins were now being cared for at a children’s hospital while a decision is made on their fate.

Officials said they were adopted six months ago in the Russian city of Tula by the woman who posed as a single mother and made a ‘positive impression’.

A search warrant has been issued and she is wanted by Russian police. She was believed to be abroad, with one report saying she did not ask anyone to give the children back and claiming she has suffered a mental breakdown as a result of the scandal.

The woman reportedly lied when she adopted the children by failing to admit her US citizenship – and the fact that she was married to an American, who should have been vetted for his suitability as an adopted father, said officials.

When the authorities discovered this they demanded the adoptive mother give details of the man, and provide his consent to caring for the children.

‘Soon after this, the children were found abandoned in an act of the most awful cruelty,’ said a source.

Mr Astakhov condemned the woman’s ‘immoral and illegal act’ and called for her to be stripped of her U.S. passport.

His press office claimed the woman ‘is destroying the work done by the U.S. to bring order to adoption issues. Unfortunately, the US is currently unable to protect children adopted in Russia.’

There was extreme concern in Russia over a number of cases involving adoptions to the US.

Astakhov personally dedicated himself to finding a new Russian home for little Artem, who is now cherished and loved by a foster mother who plans to adopt him and other children from broken homes.

The Russian media has highlighted a string of other cases in which it claims adopted children have been tortured or maltreated by U.S. adoptive parents.

After the latest case, Mr Astakhov called for the suspension of all adoptions to America until a bilateral agreement between the two countries is ratified.

‘It is contempt for Russian legislation, and the rights of our children. Two children were adopted by an absolutely immoral person,’ he said.

The U.S. address of the woman and her husband were not disclosed.”

We expect to see the same vigorous lawsuits for child payments as we saw with Torry Hansen. NCFA, where are you? The adoptive dad is a US citizen. Go find him and file a lawsuit! Quick, before your image tarnishes further!