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Investigation Committee starts probe into new death of Russian child in US

Maxim Kuzmin was killed by his foster mother in Texas, Pavel Astakihov said in his Twitter blog

MOSCOW, February 18 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian Investigation Committee has started a probe into a new death of a Russian child in the United States.

“The Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee has begun a procedural inquest in connection with media reports about a new death of a three-year-old Russian boy in a foster American family in January 2013,” Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Monday, February 18.

“As part of the inquest, the investigators requested information and materials from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Presidential Children’s Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov. After these materials have been studied and the offence has been accurately classified, the decision will be made whether to open a criminal case,” Markin said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s commissioner for human rights, democracy and the rule of law Konstantin Dolgov said.

He said the death was “yet another inhuman act of torture against a Russian child adopted by an American family.”

“According to the U.S. social welfare service, Maxim died on January 21 of this year in his foster parents’ home as a result of cruel treatment by his foster mother. Her last name is Shutto,” the diplomat told Itar-Tass.

According to Dolgov, Kuzmin was found to have had “numerous injuries on legs and head, abdominal cavity and internal organs that could have been caused by a strong blow. The foster parents regularly gave the three-year-old child a strong psychotropic substance that is usually used in the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. But this is a three-year-old boy! What a shocking detail,” the diplomat said.

Moscow hopes that if these facts prove correct, those responsible for the death of the child will face severe punishment. We will watch the investigation of the Maxim Kuzmin case. We expect those responsible for his death to get the severe penalty they deserve,” Dolgov said.

He regretted that “unlike the local authorities the U.S. Department of State did not help our Embassy officials in any way investigate the causes of the new death of a Russian child in the United States.”

Maxim Kuzmin was killed by his foster mother in Texas, the Russian president’s ombudsman for the rights of children, Pavel Astakihov, said in his Twitter blog.

“The murder occurred in late January. Three-year-old Maxim was beaten up [according to the investigators] by his foster mother who had long been feeding him strong psychotropic substances. The buy died before the ambulance called in by the foster mother arrived. According to the post-mortem, the boy had numerous injuries,” Astakhov said.