Kremlin blasts US lesbian for adopting abandoned Russian child

The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated it is investigating the adoption of a Siberian boy by a US lesbian woman, saying she hid her sexuality from Russian authorities.

As a follow-on to President Putin’s banning of US adoptions of Russian children, considered to be a knee-jerk reaction to new US laws targeting Russian human rights violators, the case is bound to further damage US/Russia relations. Russian law forbids adoption by same-sex couples.

The Foreign Ministry is accusing US citizen Marcia Brandt, who adopted Yegor Shetabalov in 2007, of hiding her relationship with her female partner. It states than the adoption placed the young boy in unacceptable conditions likely to damage his mental health.

A spokesperson from the ministry told reporters that the Russian Family Code, which states that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, had clearly been broken by Brandt’s deception. In a later tweet, the spokesperson called her action an immoral trick.

It’s known that Brandt later split up with her partner and that a battle for custody of the child took place in the US Family Courts resulted in Brandt losing custody to her former partner. Russian diplomats have been refused consular access to the adopted child.In response to the Russian ban on adoptions,

Meanwhile, US officials are about to reach an agreement with their Vietnamese counterparts over re-establishing the adoption of Vietnamese children by American citizens. A ban had been in place following allegations of babies offered for adoption without their natural parents’ consent.