A Belarusian official sent to Petaluma to secure the return of 16-year-old Tanya Kazyra, a visiting student who refused to return home at the end of her program Aug. 5, has returned to Belarus.
Talks between Pavel Shidlovsky, Kazyra and her host family ended Friday when the girl declined all of her government's enticements to return to Belarus.
Shidlovsky spent one week in the Bay Area and spoke with Kazyra three times. At least two of the sessions lasted for several hours.
Kazyra remains a legal visitor to the United States. Her tourist visa expires Dec. 25 and she has filed for a six-month extension.
She lives with the family of Debra and Manuel Zapata, with whom she has stayed for six weeks each summer for the past nine years. Her visits were arranged by the Petaluma-based Chernobyl Children's Project.
One of the program's two chaperones stayed behind with Kazyra when she refused to return with the rest of her group. That chaperone returned to Belarus on Saturday.
The status of Kazyra's visa application is unclear. Her lawyer, Christopher Kerosky of San Francisco, said visa applications can take several months to process.
--Laura Norton
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