Russian Boy May Return to Tennessee

The little boy whose adoptive parent sent him back to Russia alone could potentially return to Tennessee.

Last year, Artyom Savelyev was adopted by Torry Hanson of Shelbyville. This week, Hanson put the seven year old boy on a flight to Moscow with a note saying she couldn’t keep him anymore. In the note, Hanson claimed the boy had severe psychological problems that were not disclosed by his Russian orphanage.

Jim Savely runs Small World, an international adoption agency based in Mt. Juliet. The agency was not involved in the boy’s adoption, but is accredited to a strict set of international standards. Savely says the National Council on Adoption has asked if Small World would be willing to get involved if the boy were to come back to the US.

“If it was necessary, they asked if we could use one of our foster families here in Tennessee to help take care of the little boy.”

Savely points out that Savelyev is now a citizen of the United States as well as Russia. The boy has reportedly been moved to an orphanage in Moscow and is undergoing a battery of medical exams.

The Russian government is threatening to freeze adoptions to the US. At the very least, Savely says this week’s incident will likely make an “already delicate” adoption process more difficult.