Hrmm, well I just looked at the xml that gives him abilities. The NPC in question is Viy. He has two abilities. One is that he provides 2 research points per turn. Period. Whether he's in a city or not. So if you recruit him, you'll get 2 RP per turn from him. The second ability he has is that if you station him in a city that also has your Sov stationed, you get 5 extra RP. This is in addition to the 2 RP he is already giving you.
I have verified both abilities work in the current internal build.
At only 50 gold to recruit, he sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
