(AP) — A University of Wisconsin professor has returned to
the United States and is recovering from being drugged, robbed and dumped in a
remote Russian park.

David Bethea, 59, chairman of the university’s Slavic
languages department, said he has visited Russia more than two dozen times but
made mistakes he hopes other tourists can learn from.

A cab driver who offered him a cup of coffee apparently
laced it with a date-rape-like drug, he said. A stranger found him in a remote
park in St. Petersburg about 12 hours later.

Bethea’s liver had dangerously high levels of toxicity. He
spent eight days in a St. Petersburg hospital before being flown to UW Hospital
on Nov. 1. He spent a night there and then two weeks in bed at home. He still
tires easily, he said.

Bethea thinks he was a random target of a robbery ring. He
vaguely remembers several people taking his leather jacket, watch, wedding
ring, cell phone and wallet. They later charged several thousands of dollars on
his credit cards for items such as fur coats.

Russian police interviewed him, but no arrest has been
made in the case, Bethea said.

News of his disappearance sped through academic blogs
after he failed to show at a conference the morning after he was robbed.
Colleagues panicked.

“This kind of thing isn’t unheard of in the Wild West
that is the new Russia,” said Judith Kornblatt, a Slavic languages professor
at UW. “I thought the worst.”

But Bethea said the experience hasn’t turned him off
Russia.

“This
is going to make me more cautious,” he said, “but it hasn’t soured me
on the people or the place.”