Russia to check reports of adoption of Russian child by U.S. woman in same-sex union

February 20, 2013 / Interfax

The Russian Investigative Committee will check media reports about the adoption of a Russian child by a U.S. woman in a same-sex marriage, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin has told Interfax.

"The check will be conducted at instructions from Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin," Markin said.

Earlier Russian diplomats drew attention to the situation.

"We are seriously concerned about the situation with the 2007 adoption of Russian child Yegor Shatabalov by U.S. citizen Marcia Anne Brandt under a ruling issued by the Kemerovo region's court. According to information possessed by the Russian Embassy in Washington, the U.S. citizen lived in a 'same-sex' union with a woman named Beth Chapman. Marcia Anne Brandt deliberately concealed that circumstance from the Russian court to go around the Russian Family Code, which provides that marriage is a union between a man and a woman," Russian human rights ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov said in his comments posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry and the relevant Russian authorities are investigating the circumstances governing Yegor's adoption. Our embassy and general consulate in San Francisco are seeking consular access to him, which we are now denied," Dolgov said.

Dolgov said the Brandt and Champan broke up in 2009 and began a custody battle.

"The boy was involved in a conflict that was doubtful in terms of morals. We believe that the situation Yegor is in now is unacceptable and damaging to his mental health. We are convinced that all these things contradict the boy\'s interests and requires the provision to him of normal living conditions and a chance to be raised in a full-fledged family," Dolgov said.