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

Sitting in prison with nothing to do is a grim business. Better to have some action, even unpleasant action — an arrest, a holding cell, a court hearing. Poland had no use for me; they simply wanted to hand me over to Ukraine. They treated me as a formality — just sit there and wait. The negative interest in my work began as early as 2019. Archaeologists are not looters — they do science. I believe the response of the European scientific community was inadequate. Individual people wrote letters...