MOSCOW, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Moscow will not apologize to the United States over the situation around a three-year-old Russian child who died in a U.S. foster family, a senior diplomat said Wednesday.
"I don't understand what apology in the given context one could make. There is no ground to talk about the apology," Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry's envoy for human rights, democracy, supremacy of law, told the Voice of Russia radio station.
Local media reported last week that Russian diplomats had apologized to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after a hint from the Kremlin that it was too early to judge what had actually happened with Maxim Kuzmin, the dead boy.
Dolgov said the Russian authorities have exercised their duty toward a Russian citizen who died in a foreign country, adding that Moscow's position was "clear and simple."
The diplomat said Russia would continue to monitor the life of Russian children adopted by Americans.
Dolgov urged not to succumb to emotions when it comes to the fate of children, saying: "I'd ask here not to yield to the emotional and politicized issues which unfortunately take place."
Kuzmin died on Jan. 21, four months after he was taken along with his brother Kirill Kumzin from an orphanage in Pskov region by a U.S. family.
Senior Russian officials accused the boy's adopted mother of killing him.
Last Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul called on Russian authorities and the media to stop "sensational exploitations" of the death, saying he was "troubled by how my people and my country are being portrayed by some in the Russian press."
|
