Children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov flew Monday to the Dominican Republic to bring home a 12-year-old Russian boy who was abandoned in 2005 in the country by his Russian foster parents.
Astakhov plans to bring the boy, Denis Khokhryakov, to Russia by Thursday, his press office said in a statement, RIA-Novosti reported.
Khokhryakov, the son of an alcoholic single mother from the Volgograd region, was adopted by Larisa Onopriyenko and Sergei Sologub in 2003, the online daily Gzt.ru said.
In 2004, his new family left for the Dominican Republic but returned to Russia the next year, leaving the boy with a local taxi driver and his wife who had carted the family around the island. The boy might have been traded for cocaine, Gzt.ru said, without citing anyone.
His Russian foster parents were arrested last year in Russia on cocaine trafficking charges.
The boy was placed in a temporary shelter for young victims of domestic violence in 2008 when allegations surfaced that the Dominican foster family was mistreating him.
Khokhryakov, who was given a new name, Diego Sologub, has completely forgotten the Russian language, news reports said.
In Russia, Khokhryakov will be placed in a new foster family and a customized rehabilitation program that will provide him with psychological, educational, judicial and other required support, Astakhov said.
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