User blog comment:A Fellow Stalker/Teaser leaked/@comment-5046812-20120611193617/@comment-4488593-20120611194803

Nope. If it was they'd be going against the novel's canon, which explains that Artyom's mother died after the Great War when their home station was overrun by rats. Artyom was saved by Alex, and Alex then adopted Artyom as a child.