MOSCOW, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Russian boy returned to his homeland by his adoptive mother in the United States has no wish to try adoption again, an official said Wednesday.
Pavel Astakhov, the Russian children's ombudsman, said the boy, Artyom Savelyev, now 8, has said he prefers to live in a Moscow children's center, RIA Novosti reported.
"Artyom was given the opportunity to choose one of three families ... but right now he does not want to," Astakhov said. "But we are working on him."
The boy became an international cause celebre when Torry-Ann Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn., sent him back to Russia by himself, six months after she adopted him. Hansen, who sent a note with him calling the boy "psychopathic," accused a Russian adoption agency of providing misleading information.
Astakhov said that in addition to Artyom at least two other children have been returned in cases that were kept quiet, and that another 200 have dropped out of sight. RIA Novosti reported 15 Russian children have been killed by adoptive parents in the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
