WASHINGTON, April 1 (RIA Novosti) – The American parents of an adopted Russian teenager, who returned to his country of birth after claiming his adoptive parents mistreated him, say his behavior changed last year when he visited relatives in Russia and was introduced to drugs and alcohol, things that were forbidden in his Christian American home, according to a local television news report in Philadelphia, near where the adoptive family lives.
Joshua Alexander Salotti, 18 , who was born Alexander Abnosov, made a number of critical statements to Russian media about his American family, comments that were “very hurtful,” his adopted father, Steve Salotti, told WPVI-TV in an emotional interview.
"With the press pounding on the door and Russia putting these programs on the television, I just couldn't believe what I was hearing," the father added.
Joshua, who was adopted by the Salotti family when he was 13-years-old, along with another Russian boy, told Russian media his American parents forced him to get a job when he was 15 and kept most of his pay.
He also told news reporters in Russia his American mother nagged him repeatedly, struck him once, and that his adopted parents kicked him out of the house last year, forcing him to live on the streets with a friend.
“We slept in trailers, in cars, in drainpipes, wherever we could,” he told Russia’s state-run Rossiya-24 television. “We slept wherever it was warm.”
Steve Salotti and his wife Jackie have a very different version of events, describing an idyllic home life that included fishing trips, Christmas gifts and family pets. They told WPVI they noticed troubling behavior after Josh returned from Russia, so they implemented new rules in their Collegeville, Pennsylvania home.
There was to be "no drugs or alcohol, there was no disrespectful talk to us or teachers," said Steve Salotti, and his wife said Josh was "subject to drug testing."
Joshua and his brother were also given a curfew and told to attend counseling, the parents said.
Joshua’s complaints have resonated with Russian officials, as it comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over international adoptions.
In January, Moscow banned Americans from adopting Russian children as part of legislation passed shortly after Washington adopted the so-called Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Magnitsky Act had triggered the adoption ban, but Russian officials also cite the deaths of at least 20 Russian adoptees in the United States during the past two decades as a driving factor in Moscow's push for the ban.
Charles Mandracchia, an attorney for Steve and Jackie Salotti, told WPVI they have been “made out as villains,” and added, “Why the Russian government or the American government would allow this to happen is beyond me."
The public controversy, Steve Salotti said, “doesn't change the fact that we're concerned about our son and what's happening to him in this."
