PSKOV, February 27 - RAPSI, Nadezhda Nazarenko. The Pskov Regional Court has left without action due to a lack of evidence two claims seeking to revoke the adoption of Kirill Kuzmin, whose brother died in the US under the care of adoptive parents.

The court told RIA Novosti that it will not hear the case unless the plaintiffs - the Pskov prosecutors and the local social security agency - present solid evidence to confirm the need to revoke the adoption ruling before March 25.

Previously, the Prosecutor General's Office said they feared for the life of the two-year-old boy.

The prosecutors asked the court to revoke his adoption and to restore his Russian name, place of birth and the details of his birth parents in his birth certificate.
They also asked for the boy to be turned over to the Russian custody offices for his subsequent re-adoption in Russia, or his return to his birth mother.

Children's Rights Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov announced earlier that three-year-old Maxim Kuzmin, who had been renamed Maxim Shatto by his adoptive parents, had been fed psychotropic medicine and beaten prior to his death on January 21.

Astakhov initially said Maxim had been killed by his adoptive mother, but later admitted that the investigation remained underway. His brother Kirill is still living with his adoptive parents Alan and Laura Shatto.

The Investigative Committee has launched an investigation into Maxim's death. The Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) is also investigating his death, a CPS representative told RIA Novosti in Washington.

A number of high-profile cases concerning the abuse and death of adopted Russian children in US homes have strained US-Russian diplomatic ties in recent years.

In response to the growing number of these incidents, Russia recently enacted the Dima Yakovlev Law, named after a two-year-old Russian boy who died of heatstroke after his adoptive US father left him locked in a car for hours on a hot summer day in 2008. His father was later acquitted on charges of involuntary manslaughter, inciting a wave of criticism in Russia.

Around 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by American families over the past two decades, of which 19 have died at the hands of their parents.