MOSCOW, December 5 (RAPSI) – A human trafficking case has been launched in Russia following a journalistic investigation into the alleged abuse of adopted Russian children in the US, the Investigative Committee's official spokesman Vladimir Markin said Thursday.

The investigators assert that there exist internet resources where illicit deals were conducted with respect to children adopted by the Americans. These boards were allegedly based on US websites Yahoo and Facebook. 26 Russian adoptees are believed to have been among them. Moreover, the investigators uncovered the facts of sexual abuse concerning some children, Markin said. 

In late November, Head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin sent an official letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a look into the alleged violations of the adopted Russian children uncovered during a journalistic investigation conducted by Reuters and NBC.

Reuters reported in early September that at least 26 Russian children were “exchanged” by their US foster families with other adoptive parents via the Internet. An 18-month journalistic investigation revealed that the transfers led to cases of child abuse and neglect.

Markin said earlier that the children in question include Anna Barnes (Anna Faizzulina, born 1994), Inga Whatcott (Inga Kurasova, born 1985), Dmitri Stewart, and 23 other Russian children.

Inga was adopted in the late 1990s at the age of 11. According to the media, her new parents, Priscilla and Neal Whatcott, found her too difficult to take care of and after less than a year, turned to the Internet to find her a new home. As a result, Inga was placed with a number of different adoptive families and was repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse.

Journalists claimed that Anna Barnes suffered a similar fate.

In late 2012, the Dima Yakovlev law prohibiting US nationals from adopting Russian children was signed by President Vladimir Putin and came into force in January 2013.

Dima Yakovlev died at the age of 21 months in July 2008 after his adoptive father Michael Harrison left him in a locked car in a parking lot for nine hours. Harrison was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.