Teen Adopted by Local Couple Claims Cruelty, Returns to Russia [UPDATE]

A teenager adopted by a Collegeville couple returned to Russia after five years, alleging that his adoptive family treated him badly and that he lived on the streets, according to NBC Philadelphia.

State-controlled media in Russia reported that Alexander Absonov, also holding U.S. Passport of Joshua Alexander Salotti, returned to Cheboksary, Russia to his 72-year-old mother after spending roughly five years in the Collegeville area as the adoptice son of Steve and Jackie Salotti over five years ago.

According to the Associated Press report, written by Nataliya Vasilyeva, the allegations will likely fuel outrage over the fate of Russian children adopted by Americans’ an anger that the Kremlin “has carefully stoked in recent months to justify its controversial ban on U.S. adoptions.”

Abnosov complained to Russian media outlets that his adoptive mother was “nagging at small things,” according to the report, and that she would “make any small problem big.”

The boy told another media outlet that he fled his adoptive parents because of the conflict and stayed on the streets for three months, stealing. Abnosov claims that his adoptive parents visited him a shelter in Philadelphia, but that they didn’t ask him to come home; they gave him $500 for a ticket to Russia.

According to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Abnosov's brother, Sam Salotti, who was adopted by the Salotti family at the same time as Abnosov, said that Abnosov refused to comply with the rules set by their adoptive parents."

"It got to the point, my mom said 'Get out of the house," Salotti said. Salotti said that, while he also has a difficult relationship with his mother, he tried to get along with her while his brother could not.

The Inquirer spoke with neighbors who confirmed taht Abnosov was living in a drainage ditch at the end of Meadow Road, allegedly stealing from neighbors, after his adoptive parents wouldn't let his friend, Ben, move in with them after he was kicked out of his home.

"Him and another boy [were] living under the sewer," neighbor Joe Caine, 69, told the news outlet.

Salotti is currently staying with neighbors Barbara and Jack Ayling while his father is out of town. Salotti is set to graduate from Methacton High School this year.

“Abnosov's story was top news on Russian state television, which tried to cast it as an example of the alleged misfortunes that befall Russian children adopted by U.S. parents,” according to the AP report.