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 the corner when the Soviet Union collapsed and a democratically elected president came to power. But then Vladimir Putin came to power, suppressed resistance and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Eventually, Orlov, 71, was himself thrown in prison for opposing the war. Last week, he was released and forced into exile – just like the Soviet dissidents of his youth – in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.

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