The first picture of the Siberian boy allegedly illegally adopted to America by a lesbian couple

Now further extraordinary claims have been made in the case which has turned into a flashpoint in the bitter row between Russia and the US over adoption. 

The boy's real mother Natalia Shabatalova, 37, has raised disturbing claims about how they boy was taken from her. And a female parliamentary deputy has alleged that the boy, having been raised by two lesbians and now aged ten, has expressed a wish to change sex. It is unclear what evidence this claim is based on. 

Yegor was adopted by Brandt in 2007 with the agreement of a court in Kemerovo, Siberia. 

Russian officials say the fact that she was in a same-sex relationship with a woman called Beth Chapman was hidden from the court.  Later their relationship broke and a custody battle was held in US courts, it is claimed.

'Mrs Brandt deliberately hid this fact of her family status from the a Russian court because it goes against  the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which clearly states that the family is a union between a man and a woman,' stated the Russian Foreign Ministry commissioner on human rights, Konstantin Dolgov.

Now the boy's real mother said the child was born prematurely and doctors refused to show the child to her. 

She has raised four other children and says she now wants the boy back and is ready to give him a home. She is married to a man with a secure and well-paid job on Russian Railways. 

'Doctors insisted I rejected the boy. They said he had pathologies because he was born prematurely,' she told Life News website.

'They did not show me the baby and on the next day brought me a paper and forced me to sign it, saying I do not have enough money to take care of him and I do not have a proper place to live. They said he would not live long and would only make me suffer'.

Natalia signed the document. But the boy did not need to stay in the clinic and was sent to the orphanage. Four years later he was adopted by the American woman.

A source at the Russian embassy in Washington told the news website: 'The Russian boy was given to a woman who did not have rights to take care of him. We know that she has a criminal record for drunk driving, and we are not sure if it was alcoholic or drug poisoning.'

Meanwhile, Elena Afanasieva, a State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party, was quoted saying the boy 'has got a strong decision to change his sex. So you make your own judgment what adoption by a single sex couple leads to'.

'They adopted a boy and now he wants to be a girl. I think we must do something'.

The source of this information was unclear. 

The US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called for an end to the war of words over adoption cases, apparently referring mainly to another case, that of the death of three year old Maxim Kuzmin. 

'I am troubled by how my people and my country are being portrayed by some in the Russian press,' he said. 

'It is time for sensational exploitations of human tragedy to end and for professional work between our two countries to grow, on this issue and many others'.