Russian Panel Advises Freeing American

MOSCOW —  Russia’s presidential clemency commission recommended Friday that President Vladimir V. Putin free ailing U.S. businessman Edmond D. Pope, and President Clinton spoke to the Russian leader by phone urging the American’s release.

Pope’s 20-year sentence for espionage, and the eight months he spent in a Moscow jail leading up to this week’s conviction, have cast a pall over U.S.-Russian relations as Putin is trying to revive Moscow’s global influence.

The commission urged a pardon, citing the “cruel” sentence and a wish to stem any return to Russia’s totalitarian past.

In a letter to Putin, the commission said the lengthy sentence would bar Pope from bidding farewell to his father, who is dying of cancer. It also said that Pope had already suffered enough during his pretrial detention in Lefortovo prison and that he would not live long in a penal colony.

Pope suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, which was in remission when he was arrested in April but which his family fears has returned.

Clinton spoke to Putin for 10 minutes, urging him to pardon Pope on health grounds, White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.

“I’m not going to characterize Putin’s response, but we’re going to keep working on it,” Siewert told reporters in Nebraska, which the president was visiting.

Pope was convicted Wednesday by a Moscow court after the Federal Security Service accused him of illegally obtaining classified blueprints for a high-speed underwater torpedo. The seven-week trial was widely seen as biased in favor of the prosecution.