Sending adopted child back to Russia monstrous: Medvedev

(RIA Novosti) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the American couple who sent an adopted child back to Russia committed a 'monstrous' deed.

'It is a monstrous deed on the part of his adoptive parents, to take the kid and virtually throw him out with the airplane in the opposite direction... (It) is not only immoral but also against the law,' Medvedev said Friday.

Eight-year-old Artyom Savelyev, adopted by an American couple six months ago and renamed Justin, flew to Moscow from the US on April 8 on his own. He brought a note where his adoptive parents said they will not take care of him any longer because he was 'mentally unstable'.

'This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues,' Savelyev's adoptive mother, Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee, said in the note.

'I was lied to and misled by the Russian orphanage regarding his mental stability,' she said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Russia could freeze child adoptions by US citizens until the countries sign an intergovernmental agreement on adoptions.

The agreement should include the conditions under which Russian authorities can allow adoptions and the obligations of the adoptive parents, he said.

The incident has evoked concern among most people.

The head of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption (FRUA), a US public organisation uniting over 2,000 families who adopted children born in former Soviet bloc countries, said her organisation is shocked by the incident.

'FRUA is shocked and saddened by the news that an American family sent their son to Russia claiming they couldn't parent him. The parents' actions were extreme and must have been horribly traumatic for this young child,' Sue Gainor said.

Russia has suspended the operations of the US child adoption agency which assisted in the adoption of Savelyev, an education ministry official said Friday.

'We have suspended the permission of the non-profit corporation World Association for Children and Parents to operate in Russia,' Alina Levitskaya said.