Veteran human rights advocate freed in swap says Russia is sliding back toward Stalinist times

BERLIN: Oleg Orlov, a human rights activist since the 1980s, thought Russia had reached a turning point when the Soviet Union collapsed and a democratically elected president took over. But then Vladimir Putin came to power, crushed opposition and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Eventually, Orlov, 71, was jailed for his opposition to the war. Freed last week in the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War, he was forced into exile like many Soviet dissidents of his youth.

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