Pardon Likely for U.S. Man

Seeking to avoid a dispute with the United States, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin indicated Saturday that he will soon pardon U.S. businessman Edmond D. Pope, whose espionage trial and conviction brought protests from Washington.

Putin said he could not ignore a recommendation by Russia’s presidential clemency commission that Pope be freed. Citing the 54-year-old Pope’s weak health and his wish to see his dying father, the commission said a pardon would prove to the West that Russia has broken with its totalitarian past.

The White House, which had called Pope’s 20-year prison sentence unwarranted and demanded his release, cheered the apparent decision to let him return home to State College, Pa.

“It will be a great relief to all Americans when Mr. Pope is finally freed,” President Clinton said in a statement.

During a tour Saturday of industrial facilities in the Urals region, Putin said: “The [clemency] commission consists of well-known and respected public figures, so I cannot but heed their opinion.”

“In making this decision, we will also consider the high level of relations between the United States and Russia,” he said. “We are not aiming to look for a reason to worsen these relations.”

A Moscow court sentenced the former U.S. Navy intelligence officer to prison Wednesday on charges of obtaining information about a top-secret Russian navy torpedo.

Pope insisted that he was not a spy and said he was seeking only declassified information. He runs a company that specializes in information about foreign maritime technology.