ST. PETERSBURG, March 20 - RAPSI. Russia's Investigative Committee will call on Interpol to prosecute the US families who have been implicated in the deaths of their adopted Russian children, the committee's chief Alexander Bastrykin told reporters on Wednesday.

Investigators have recently launched 22 cases against US families who adopted children from Russia.

"In cases where the US authorities fail to respond with appropriate thoroughness to a Russian child's death, we will take harsher measures to prosecute these people," he said.

This especially concerns the adoptive families who have been cleared by the US justice system, he added. "We will enlist Interpol to have them prosecuted under Russian law," the official said.

The recent death of three-year-old Maxim Kuzmin, who was adopted by a couple in Texas and renamed Max Shatto, has caused a public uproar.

Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov announced the death of the boy on February 18. He tweeted that the child had been given powerful "psychotropic substances," and he was badly beaten before he died in a hospital on January 21.

On March 1, the Texas authorities announced that the boy's death was not criminal based on the autopsy results. The four doctors who reviewed the results ruled the death accidental.

Initially, the investigators did not rule out that his adoptive parents Alan and Laura Shatto, could be charged with neglect in the boy's death. Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland stated on Monday that his office will not charge the adoptive parents in the boy's death.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said the decision not to bring charges against his adoptive parents raises "serious concerns" in Russia. "The ombudsman, the Investigative Committee, and the Foreign Ministry will insist that the US authorities provide all of the materials in the Kuzmin case," his press service said.

The Shattos adopted Max and his biological half-brother, two-year-old Kristopher, aka Kirill, from the same orphanage in western Russia. Since the boy's death, his brother has remained with his adoptive parents.

The Investigative Committee reported Tuesday that local authorities in Russia's Pskov Region have launched a criminal investigation into the alleged negligence in the processing of both boys' adoption documents.