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Boy Returned to Russia Sent to Orphanage

A boy who was sent back to Russia by his American adoptive mother has been placed back in an orphanage, the lawyer for an adoption agency said.

Larry Crain, who works for the World Association for Children and Parents, said he did not have further information about the orphanage, the Shelbyville Times-Gazette reported Friday.

The boy's adoptive mother, Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee, created an international uproar in April when she sent him to Moscow unaccompanied on a plane with a note saying she did not want him anymore because he had severe psychological problems.

The 8-year-old boy, Artyom Savelyev, was adopted in September 2009 from an orphanage in the Primorye region town of Partizansk.

The family of a Russian diplomat expressed interest in adopting the boy shortly after he arrived in Moscow.

New adoptions by U.S. parents in Russia have virtually stopped after the incident as the two countries negotiate a new agreement on adoptions.

Education and Science Ministry officials have said Hansen remains the legal parent of the boy because she has not renounced her rights in court and the note carried by the boy was not a legal document.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette also reported that Crain has filed a court petition saying another Tennessee woman was willing to be the boy's guardian.

(AP, MT)

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