US refuses to repatriate dead Russian childs brother

Big News Network (IANS)
Saturday 23rd February, 2013

A Russian toddler adopted in the US whose brother died in Texas under unclear circumstances would not be sent back to Russia, Texan authorities said.

The boy’s 23-year-old mother, Yulia Kuzmina, has asked to have her surviving son Kirill back.

CBS News reported that a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said that was out of the question.

“We’re a state agency in Texas that operates under Texas state laws and we wouldn’t be involved in doing anything other than placing that child within Texas,” Patrick Crimmins was cited as saying.

The adoption was consummated, which means that biological parents and adoption agencies alike lost legal rights to the child, Crimmins said.

Kuzmina was stripped of parental rights in 2011 due to alcohol abuse.

The two-year-old Kirill and his three-year-old brother Maxim were adopted last year by Texan couple Alan and Laura Shatto, but in January, Maxim died while playing outside.

Russian officials accused Laura Shatto of killing the boy, but backtracked after learning that the inquiry into the boy’s death was still going on.

However, Russia’s legislature has still requested the US Senate to help repatriate Kirill, who is still living with the Shattos.

The request made no mention of giving him back to his biological mother, who was busted for “drunken debauchery”.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

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