This is cross-posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog The Russian Foreign Ministry has put a freeze on all adoptions to the US until an agreement can be made between the two countries to better protect the rights–and we presume bodies and minds–of children placed in US homes. New York Times:“Future adoptions of Russian children by citizens of the United States, which are now suspended, are possible only if such an agreement is reached,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, (right) said at a briefing on Thursday.Officials at the United States Embassy in Moscow said they had not received official notification of a suspension and were seeking more information from their Russian counterparts. Fox News adds:Today State Department sources were caught unawares by the announcement of a freeze. A U.S. diplomatic source told me “we don’t know anything about it, the Russians have told us nothing officially”. The National Council for Adoption sent out a press release (not yet online) this morning which reads in part: The National Council For Adoption (NCFA) has spoken with Russian officials in the Ministry of Education (the Russian department with Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog OK. We have officially entered the Weird World of Torry Hansen. The Tennessean reports that back in 2006, Torry Hansen and a former neighbor Robert Abbott engaged in what it calls a “bizarre feud.” How bizarre? The paper doesn’t give us the run-up, but reports that at 4:19 AM October 7, 2006, Hansen called the cops on Abbott complaining he was on her property. He was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. The charges were dropped later. At the time, Hansen was sharing a home in Chapel Hill with her parents, sister, and a young boy, who I assume is Logan. Sheriff Randall Boyce, currently investigating Artem’s case, says he has a vague recollection of the feud: I remember they were putting cameras on each other. Cameras on each other? Fredia Smith, who purchased the 4,300-square-foot Chapel Hill home and 30 acres from the Hansens in 2007 remembers visible evidence of the feud well. She keeps a picture of a trailer Hansen painted neon orange, green and purple and placed near the road, apparently to irritate her neighbors. It Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog Like Laura Silsby, Torry Hansen and her mother Nancy just get weirder and weirder. Unless otherwise cited, the following material comes from this ABC News article and video. Another Adoptee for Torry HansenABC News reported yesterday, using an unnamed source inside the Bedford County sheriff’s office, that while Torry Hansen was getting ready to ship one adopted son back to Russia she was trying to adopt another child from the Republic of Georgia. And she wasn’t getting any help from her agency, the World Association for Children and Parents, either: She switched adoption agencies after the agency that arranged the adoption of her first child, World Association for Children and Parents, urged her to wait before adopting again, the source said. The association advised Hansen it would be best to settle in with the boy before adding to her family, the source said. WACAP now has a FAQ on its page regarding Artem’s case (much of which is “confidential” and cannot be released) and outlining international adoption procedures and practices it follows. No more details on the alleged second Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog. I have found it difficult to believe that any lawyer, even online, would have advised the Hansens to stick Artem on a plane and hire a tour guide to escort him to the Ministry of Science and Education building on Moscow’s main street. Hansen’s lawyer has now been identified as St. Petersburg attorney Karina Krasnova. Despite Nancy Hansen’s plea that she made a quick decision to send Artum back, Krasnova says Hanson contacted her a month ago about how to return the boy. Sending him to Tverskaya was definitely NOT the advice she gave. Krasnova has a free Ask Russian Lawyer a Question feature on her (linked above) webpage. Guess what? That’s where Nancy Hansen got her advice–actually good advice–which she promptly ignored. If the Hansens think they can plead ignorance of the law or get Krasnova to back them up, they’re in for a real rude awakening. Here is how the Q & A went: Q: My daughter adopted boy from Russia (she is a single mother). My daughter was lied to about the child’s behavior by the Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog. Artur Lookyanov, the Moscow tour guide, hired by Nancy Hansen to pick up Artem Saveliev/Artem Justin Hansen at Domedovo Airport last week posted a message here yesterday. This morning I found his own long and very detailed account of the event on his webpage Moscow Driver. This is the fullest account of Artem’s abandonment so far, and very important reading. It also clears up earlier stories that indicated that Artem was found wandering around the airport by himself. I’ve been in both Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo Airport Hell myself, and it’s nothing adults, much less children, should be subjected to. Below are excerpts from: Story of Artem Justin Hansen: How I Became Involved in an International Adoption Scandal (Part 1) (Follow link to Part 2 and other details) I suggest you go over to Artur’s page and read the entire account.From Part 1: Email exchange with Nancy Hansen. Booking transportation from airport Moscow city. Note that in all of our correspondence she never once told me that she would not be the one to meet me at the airport. I Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog. I need to spend today working on Illinois legislative matters, but wanted to get this out first. A curious little piece on the Hansen family appeared Saturday on WSMV-TV, Nashville: Hansen women regularly held yard sales When I saw the Google News headline my first thought was “stretching for a story.” Then I read it. Though the reporter made no connection between last week’s yard sale that featured “kids’ clothes, toys, car seats and stuff” and Artem’s quick departure for Moscow, I can’t help but see one. Can you? On Saturday, neighbors who live beside the women in Bedford County said the family kept to themselves and hardly anyone knew them, but the women did hold weekly yard sales. Chelby Clark said she even went to a yard sale at the Hansen’s home last week. “The kids may have been running around,” she said. On Saturday, several long tables were still sitting in the front yard of the Hansen’s homes off Highway 41 in El Bethel. Clark said their sale last week centered around kids’ items. She recalled seeing Continue Reading →

This is cross posted from my Nikto Ne Zabyt (Memoriam for Russian Adoptees Murdered and Abused by their Forever Families) blog. Adoptee dumpers Torry Hansen and her mother Nancy finally bought a clue and a real lawyer–and then failed to show up for a sitdown Friday with Bedford County (TN) Sheriff Randall Boyce. Here’s the intro to a long article in Saturday’s Shelbyville Times-Gazette about his area’s international pariahs. The mother and grandmother of a young adopted Russian boy sent by himself back to Moscow failed to make an appointment they had originally scheduled Friday to talk to Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce about the case. Boyce told media representatives Friday that Torry Hansen would not be showing up at his department, but “may be here sometime next week.” “She called and said her attorney didn’t think it was in her best interest at this point … mainly because of the media being here,” Boyce said. Boyce told the press: “This is an international deal … and we’re going to handle it a little bit at a time so we don’t make a mistake,” he said, adding that his department had never dealt with this kind of situation before. Here Continue Reading →