AMERICAN STUDENT ARRIVES IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW -- American Fulbright scholar John Tobin arrived in Moscow
Saturday morning, on the first leg of a long journey home after his
release on parole from a one-year drug sentence.

Accompanied by two representatives from the U.S. Embassy, Tobin
arrived on an overnight train from Voronezh, the provincial city where
he was arrested in January in a case that became an irritant in
U.S.-Russian relations.

The 24-year-old, who said he was jailed after refusing to spy for
Russia, declined comment as he unloaded boxes, bags of books and other
belongings from the train at Moscow's Paveletsky Station, as a
half-dozen Russian special troops stood by.

The soldiers accompanied him as he made his way through a crowd of
journalists and spectators, after which Tobin and the embassy
employees left in a waiting van.

A court approved Tobin's release Friday, a day after a parole board
recommended he be freed after serving half of a one-year sentence.
Local court and prison officials said he was a model inmate -- but
they also appeared weary of the attention and controversy the case
brought.

When Tobin walked out of the shabby, Soviet-era prison in the town of
Rossosh near Voronezh on Friday, he looked pale and thinner than he
had during his trial. Flashing a brief smile, he wore blue jeans and
toted his belongings in two plastic shopping bags.

Asked if he was bitter over his ordeal, Tobin said, "No," but
otherwise declined to speak to reporters.

A native of Ridgefield, Conn., Tobin was arrested in January as he
left a nightclub in Voronezh, where he was doing political science
research. He was convicted in April of obtaining, possessing and
distributing marijuana and sentenced to 37 months in prison.

A higher court, however, overturned the distribution conviction and
reduced the sentence to one year.

The case attracted wider attention when local officials of the Federal
Security Service charged that Tobin was a spy in training, citing his
studies at the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. No
espionage charges were filed and Tobin said he was framed on the drug
charges because he refused to work for Russian intelligence.

The Federal Security Service is the main successor to the KGB, the
Soviet-era secret police and spy agency.

Tobin's case was taken up by members of Congress from Connecticut, who
wrote to Russian officials and pressed President Bush to take up the
matter in his meetings with President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. Rep. James H. Maloney, who represents Tobin's district in
Congress, said Friday he and Tobin's family were concerned that
something might happen to Tobin before he leaves Russia. "We're on
guard for that."

Tobin was expected to return to the United States by next Tuesday or
Wednesday, Maloney said.

"I'm absolutely elated," said Tobin's mother, Alyce Van Etten, who
lives in Monticello, N.Y. "I look forward to hearing his voice as soon
as possible."