AMERICAN STUDENT REUNITED WITH FATHER

MOSCOW -- The father of American Fulbright scholar John Tobin was
reunited Sunday with his son, who had been jailed since January on
drug charges in a case that became an irritant in U.S.-Russian relations.

Tobin, released Friday on parole from a prison in southern Russia, was
in Moscow to work out the formalities necessary to get an exit visa to
leave the country.

"He sounded very good" over the telephone, John Tobin Sr. said of his
son after arriving Sunday at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 airport. "He's
very happy to be out. He seems elated."

Father and son later managed to spend some time together, said Rep.
James Maloney, who accompanied the elder Tobin to Moscow.

The son appeared pale and thin, Maloney told Connecticut station
WVIT-TV. But "I think his spirits are good," he said.

The younger Tobin has declined to speak publicly since his release,
possibly reflecting concern that any comment on the touchy case could
affect his prospects of leaving Russia.

Tobin was arrested in January in Voronezh, where he was studying at
the local university under the Fulbright program. Police said he had a
small amount of marijuana in his possession and that more was found at
his apartment.

The arrest attracted little attention until a spokesman for the
Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB,
said Tobin was believed to be training to be a U.S. spy, noting that
he had studied at the elite U.S. Defense Language Institute in
Monterey, Calif., and was in an intelligence battalion in the Army
Reserve.

Tobin was never charged with espionage, and some of the drug charges
against him unraveled. The prosecutor in his trial accused police of
overstating the amount of marijuana and made the unusual move of
asking the court to drop the most serious charges -- of running a drug
den and obtaining drugs as part of a criminal gang, for which Tobin
could have been sentenced to 15 years.

He was convicted in April of obtaining, possessing and distributing
marijuana and sentenced to three years in prison. A higher court,
however, overturned the distribution conviction and reduced the
sentence to one year. He became eligible for parole upon serving half
his sentence.

President Bush raised the case during meetings with President Vladimir
Putin in Genoa, Italy, last month. And although Putin has made no
comment on the case, there is wide speculation that he pressed for
approval of Tobin's parole.

"I think President Putin, you know, did the right thing by taking a
part in it and expediting things," the senior Tobin said Sunday.

Maloney said Russian authorities "have been very cooperative" in
trying to expedite the bureaucratic formalities necessary for Tobin's
departure.

He said he hoped Tobin could leave within a few days. After that, the
student's plans were unclear.

"He's very adaptable. He needs some time to decompress. I don't think
he's even thinking about that, really," his father said.

When Tobin walked out of the prison in the town of Rossosh, about 420
miles south of Moscow, he appeared gaunt and had his hair cropped
short like most Russian prisoners. He carried a few possessions in
shopping bags.

He returned to Voronezh and collected other belongings, including
boxes of books, and boarded an overnight train for Moscow. He unloaded
the goods at Moscow's Paveletsky Station, watched by a half-dozen
members of Russia's OMON special troops.

The case also sparked an outpouring of support in his hometown of
Ridgefield, Conn., with supporters tying yellow ribbons on
old-fashioned lamp posts, circulating petitions and holding benefit
concerts.