PHILLIP MILES RELEASED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON, BACK IN SC

The Associated Press is reporting that Rev. Phillip Miles, the Conway pastor who was given three years in a Russian prison in April for “smuggling” a carton of hunting-rifle ammunition to a friend as part of a mission trip, has been released and is now back on American soil.

“It’s been a sore test, no doubt,” Miles said Friday, sipping on a diet soda hours before he was to join his congregation for a homecoming party at Christ Community Church in Conway.

The 57-year-old American pastor said he was making his 12th missions trip to Russia in January when he ran afoul of the law.

“It’s customary to bring the pastor and his wife a gift and I just had not thought of anything,” Miles explained by phone from his Conway home. “Then I remembered that he had just bought himself a new hunting rifle, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just get him some ammunition,’ not really thinking that Russia probably wouldn’t be happy about something like that.”

The box of .300-caliber cartridges was discovered Jan. 29 in his luggage as he switched planes in Moscow for Perm, a city about 750 miles to the east. He was questioned and the ammunition confiscated, but officials let him continue his trip, telling him to report to police on his return to Moscow. On his way back Feb. 3, he was arrested. [PAGE IVEY - AP]

This all came after a clemency letter from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a whole lot of hard work from the U.S. embassy and other government officials, and the constant thought, prayers and support of friends and relatives.

“The embassy is Moscow is just an incredible embassy,” Miles said. “They fought for me.”

But I’ll tell you who isn’t “incredible” – Russia. This whole incident proves that the former Soviet Union hasn’t changed a whole lot in the nearly two decade since the end of the communist era. That country is still as backwards, corrupt and anti-American as it ever was.