A veteran human rights activist freed in the exchange says Russia is returning to the Stalinist era
BERLIN: A human rights activist since the 1980s, Oleg Orlov believed that Russia had turned a corner when the Soviet Union collapsed and a democratically elected president became the leader.
But then Vladimir Putin came to power, suppressing dissent and launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Finally, 71-year-old Orlov himself was thrown into prison for resisting the war. Freed last week in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, he has been forced into exile — like the Soviet dissidents of his youth.
In an interview with the Associated Press agency in Berlin on Thursday, Orlov condemned the scale and brutality of the repression under Putin, when people were imprisoned simply for criticizing the authorities, something not seen since the time of dictator Joseph Stalin.
And he promises to continue working to free the many political prisoners in Russia and keep their names in the spotlight.
“We're slipping back into Stalinist times,” said Orlov, who at times showed signs of weariness from a hectic schedule of media interviews in the week since his release.
In February, he was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison for writing an anti-war article. When he was unexpectedly transferred from a prison in central Russia last month in what ultimately led to an Aug. 1 prisoner swap, he was waiting to be transferred to a prison after losing an appeal.
The move came as a complete surprise, he told the AP.
First, he was told to write a petition for clemency in the name of Putin – which, according to him, he categorically refused. A few days later, he was put in a van and, to his surprise, taken to Samara airport and taken to Moscow.
“It's a very strange feeling to be on a plane, among free people, straight from prison,” Orlov said.
He spent another three days in Moscow's infamous Lefort Prison, isolated in his cell, where he wrote a complaint about being denied a meeting with a lawyer. Then he was shown the pardon document. He was again put on a plane, this time from Russia, along with other freed dissidents, and was met in Germany by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
He smiled, recalling that he saw familiar faces on the bus to the airport – artist and musician Sasha Skachilenka, imprisoned for a small anti-war action, opposition politician Andrey Pivavarov and others.
“So, when the state security operative announced (on the bus) that it was an exchange, we already understood it perfectly,” he said.
However, being in “Lyafortovo”, Orlov suspected that another criminal case was being prepared against him. As for what charges authorities might bring, he said, “They'll have no problem finding (one).”
“The repressive machine … is started and working on its own,” said the veteran human rights defender. “The machine works for itself and can only strengthen the repression, make it tougher.”
Memorial, the human rights organization co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Orlov, says more than 760 political prisoners remain in prisons in Russia. Another prominent human rights group, OVD-Info, says more than 1,300 people are currently in prison in politically motivated cases.
Some are in solitary confinement without access to lawyers or doctors, often at the behest of the authorities, Orlov said.
Opposition politicians such as the late Alexei Navalny or the recently replaced Vladimir Kara-Murza were kept in such isolated conditions in remote colonies and their health deteriorated.
“My experience was much easier than many others',” Orlow said. The prison staff “never committed complete injustice towards me,” he added, “I was not singled out from the crowd.”
Still, it's important to support the growing number of those prosecuted for political reasons, he said, from keeping them in the headlines to sending them letters and aid packages, and helping their families.
In prison, “there's always a sense of caring for your family. Knowing that your family is going to be okay is a real peace of mind. And in prison, the most important thing is not to despair and feel peace of mind,” said Orlov.
In the hectic days since the beginning of his new life in exile, which he never sought, Orlov has had little time to master his newfound freedom, and he has yet to be reunited with his wife.
But he is determined to continue his work with Memorial and says there are still things human rights activists can do from outside Russia, such as maintaining a database of political prisoners and coordinating aid for those behind bars.
However, a complete end to the repression will happen only when Putin's “repressive, terrorist regime” ceases to exist, he says.
