Russian archaeologist freed in prisoner exchange says he’s grateful his country came to his aid

I believe the response of the European scientific community was inadequate. Individual people wrote letters in my support, and I’m grateful to them, but on the whole, the community could have spoken up more forcefully. Honestly, I was hoping for an exchange. When I found out about it, I was glad — but not surprised. It’s nice that my country came to my aid, and I’ll remember that. The illusion that science exists outside of politics has been shattered. My case is a very bad precedent for the entire world. It frightens scholars and works against science. The world has changed in a terrible way. The police officer who escorted me to court lamented, “You know, even scholars are being arrested now. Such are the times.”