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British scientist Hawking says would like to visit Russia again

CAMBRIDGE, March 28. /TASS/. Famous British scientist Stephen Hawking said in an exclusive interview with TASS on Monday that he would like to visit Russia again.

"I enjoyed my previous visits to Russia and I would like to visit again," Hawking said.

The scientist, who visited the Soviet Union seven times, said the most memorable for him during the trips was that he was detained for Bible smuggling.

"The first time was with a student party in which one member, a Baptist, distributed Russian language Bibles and asked us to smuggle them in. We managed this undetected but on our way out the authorities had discovered what we had done and detained us for a while," Hawking said.

"However to charge us with smuggling Bibles would have caused an international incident and unfavorable publicity so they let us go after a few hours. The other six visits were to visit Russian scientists who were not allowed to travel to the West," he said.

The full text of the interview is available here.