MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian toddler adopted in the United States whose brother died in Texas under unclear circumstances would not be sent back to Russia, Texan authorities said, CBS News reported.
The boy’s mother, Yulia Kuzmina, 23, asked on Thursday to have her surviving son Kirill back.
But 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 laws 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 on Friday.
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 fall by Texan couple Alan and Laura Shatto, but in January, Maxim died while playing outside.
Russian officials accused Laura Shatto earlier this week of killing the boy, but backtracked after learning that the inquiry into the boy’s death was still ongoing.
However, Russia’s legislature still requested on Friday 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" earlier the same day.
