NEWSLINK: Freed scientist finds little change or hope in Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Freed scientist finds little change or hope in Russia – Reuters – Gabriela Baczynska – November 25, 2012 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/25/us-russia-scientist-idUSBRE8AO02V20121125)

Reuters interviews Russian physicist Valentin Danilov after his release from a Siberian penal colony, where he was previously jailed on allegations of espionage.  Danilov sees little change in Russia’s political or ethical climate, blaming Russian voters at least in part:

Grey, pale and thin, Valentin Danilov has changed more than the country that jailed him in 2004 for selling state secrets to China.

The 66-year-old Russian physicist, whose face is now criss-crossed with deep wrinkles, could not be blamed for suffering from “deja vu” when he was released on Saturday from a Siberian penal colony on spying charges he says were politically motivated.

President Vladimir Putin, now 60, is back in the Kremlin for a third term, corruption is rife, the unreformed economy is creaking under the weight of its dependence on energy exports, and opponents are still being imprisoned.

Danilov, whose case human rights activists cite as evidence that Putin uses Russia’s weak courts to persecute his enemies, sees little hope of rapid change.

“Nothing has changed,” Danilov said in an interview, putting some of the blame on Russia’s 142 million people.

“The authorities do not descend on us from the moon. They are the choice of the nation. So the authorities reflect the state of the nation,” he told Reuters a few hours after his release from the high-fenced penal colony.

Click here for full article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/25/us-russia-scientist-idUSBRE8AO02V20121125

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