EX-RUSSIAN PRISONER STOPS IN AREA

Former Russian prisoner John E. ''Jack'' Tobin Jr. is a walking primer on
what it means to be free. The lanky, 24-year-old Fulbright scholar strode
off a plane in Augusta on Sunday morning.

He was greeted with cheers and hugs as he was reunited with family members
from Aiken.

''You have to have your freedom taken away to really appreciate it, just
like the attacks of the past week,'' Mr. Tobin said of his imprisonment
overseas and the more recent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

The student, using his scholarship funding to study changes in Russian
society since the end of the Cold War, was arrested on marijuana charges
Feb. 1 in Voronezh.

He has maintained he was set up because the Federal Security Service, a new
incarnation of the KGB, the old Soviet-era secret police, suspected him of
being a spy in training.

Although he was released Aug. 3, his area relatives had not seen him since
he left for Russia in September of last year. The scholar's research trip
turned into an uncertain waiting game for them after he was handed a
three-year jail sentence in February on the drug charges.

Because of mounting political and media pressure, the sentence was reduced
to one year, and Mr. Tobin was paroled after serving six months. Mr. Tobin
said Sunday the marijuana was planted on him, a common tactic for countries
without strong human rights protections.

''They're the same people as the KGB, the same methods. They wanted to find
out more about who I was, or they didn't like what I was doing for
research,'' Mr. Tobin said.

He said his incarceration was drawn out because he had served a stint in
military intelligence while in the Army and is still a member of the Army
Reserve. The Russians wanted him to give secrets and collect more
information for them, he said.

''They offered to clean it all up if I worked with them,'' he said.

Mr. Tobin tapped a cigarette out of its package and smoked it in the
airport parking lot as he recalled his ordeal.

He gestured to the empty parking space he stood in at the airport.

''That's about how big the cells were,'' Mr. Tobin said of the prison where
he spent nearly five months of his captivity. He compared the prison to a
cramped county jail one might find in the United States. He said the
conditions were bad, but not on par with the harsh conditions of larger
Russian labor camps where he could have been sent.

His cell had two other inmates. Other cells housed as many as six.

Mr. Tobin said he was allowed to have only limited communication with U.S.
Embassy officials, but that they made sure he was afforded every right
other Russian prisoners have.

''The worst thing was knowing people at home had no idea what was going on
with me,'' he said. ''I knew I was going to be all right.''

With a positive mind-set, Mr. Tobin treated the experience as another facet
of his research. ''I was, in a way, fascinated by all of it, with life in
the prison there.

''I learned to make glue out of bread (to stick items on the walls). I
learned to make long ropes out of socks. The ropes would connect the cells
on the wing from the outside.''

He said the prisoners would use the rope to transport bartered jail
luxuries, such as cigarettes. They have a nickname, he said, for the
makeshift device: ''the road.''

Mr. Tobin said his prison experience altered his outlook on life.

''I've lost some of the recklessness I might have had. My outlook is a
little more cynical about the Russian authorities, but not about the
Russian people.''

For now, Mr. Tobin is taking time, when he can, to visit with friends and
family.

His stop Sunday, however, was just long enough to meet up with his
grandfather, Edward M. Carey, who drove a special truck for transporting
some of the hunting dogs he trains.

The two men were making good on overdue vacation plans to hunt ducks and
geese in Canada. They began their long drive minutes after Mr. Tobin
arrived at the airport.

His aunts who traveled to the airport to see him expressed a little
jealousy, but they know they'll see their nephew when he returns in two weeks.

Mr. Tobin's travel south was delayed six days, the result of airline
adjustments because of last week's hijacking tragedies. He was in New York
on Tuesday when theWorld Trade Center was struck.

He watched from the rooftop of his girlfriend's apartment as the second
World Trade Center tower disintegrated.

During the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, he transported a paramedic
into Manhattan to help with the rescue effort.

He said it's a ''fine line'' balancing personal liberties and safety. He
has no problem, he said, with stepped up searches and delays in airports or
elsewhere if it translates to greater safety.

He said he was glad for similar precautions after terrorists struck a
subway in Russia's Pushkin Square.

When Mr. Tobin returns home to Connecticut, final commitments related to
his Fulbright scholarship will await. He also will tell his story at
speaking engagements, including one at Harvard, and in a book.