Russian
investigators have opened an inquiry into the death of an adopted 3-year-old boy
in the United States in a case that could aggravate a row with Washington over
adoptions in Russia.
Russian
officials said they are concerned that Maxim Shatto, whose Russian name is Maxim
Kuzmin, may have been badly beaten before his death on January 21 in his home in
Texas.
Moscow seized on
the case as justifying a new law banning adoptions of Russian children by
Americans, a measure that has escalated a tit-for-tat row with Washington over
trade and human rights.
"I would like to
draw your attention to yet another case of inhumane treatment of a Russian child
adopted by American parents," Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's
human rights representative, said in a statement.
Shatto was
adopted with his younger brother Kirill from an orphanage in Pskov in northwest
Russia.
U.S. authorities
said the circumstances surrounding the boy's death were under investigation, and
the results of an autopsy were pending, according to the Ector County Sheriff's
office.
Texas child
welfare authorities were also investigating allegations of child abuse and
neglect in the case, a process that can take a month or more, Texas Department
of Family and Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said on Tuesday.
Reuters
American
families adopt more Russian children than those of any other country, with more
than 60,000 cases since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, including 962 in
2011. Reuters In January,
Russia announced it was banning all American adoptions in retaliation for a new
U.S. law targeting alleged Russian human rights violators. Sky
News The ban on
adoptions reflects lingering resentment over the 60,000 Russian children adopted
by Americans in the past two decades, of which at least 19 have died. Sky
News Russia reacted
extremely critically to the fact that the U.S. waited almost a month before
notifying Russian authorities about the death of Maxim Kuzmin. Even then, it was
Texas’ law enforcement authorities that spoke out, while the other U.S. channels
remained mute on the subject. Russia Today
AHT/ARA
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