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

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Berlin: Oleg Orlov, a human rights activist since the 1980s, thought Russia had turned a corner with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of a democratically elected president. But then Vladimir Putin came to power and crushed the opposition and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Finally, 71-year-old Orlov was imprisoned for opposing the war. Released last week in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, he was forced into exile – just like the Soviet dissidents of his youth.

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