Moscow ? Russian and U.S. officials gave birthday gifts Friday to the 8-year-old boy who was returned to Russia by his adoptive American mother, as Russia sent conflicting signals about whether all adoptions to the United States were now suspended.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that adoption of Russian children by U.S. families had been suspended after Artyom Savelyev was sent unaccompanied to Moscow last week with a note from his adoptive mother in Tennessee saying he had psychological problems and was violent. People who have spent time with the boy in Moscow say he seems like a happy child.

Russian officials have provided little clarification about the hundreds of U.S. adoptions now in progress.

The Kremlin children’s rights ombudsman said Friday that potential parents may still prepare the paperwork for adoptions during the freeze, but courts will not hear U.S. adoption cases.

The Education and Science Ministry, which oversees international adoptions, insisted, however, that it had received no formal instructions to freeze adoptions and it was up to the courts to decide.