Soviet dissident to visit Russia after 15-year break

Vladimir Bukovsky, a former Soviet dissident now living in Britain, who plans to run for the presidency in Russia, will arrive in the country on Tuesday after a 15-year absence.

The 64-year-old writer, who spent 12 years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric units, was one of the first to expose psychiatric imprisonment as a tool to break the will of dissidents in the Soviet Union.

On Wednesday Bukovsky will hold a presentation of his election program and meet with his supporters and activists of public organizations. His supporters plan to hold a sanctioned rally on central Moscow`s Triumfalnaya Square on Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, Bukovsky will hold presentations of his book "And the Wind Returns" in the city`s three largest bookstores.

After being released from prison in 1976 and deported to the United Kingdom, in exchange for Chilean Communist leader Luis Corvalan, Bukovsky was given Russian citizenship in 1992 by former president Boris Yeltsin.

Bukovsky has criticized what he considers an increasing level of authoritarianism under President Vladimir Putin.

After Bukovsky was put forward by pro-democracy activists as an opposition candidate in late May to run in the March 2008 presidential elections, the dissident decided to apply for a new Russian passport for trips to the country. The Russian consulate in London issued him a passport in August.

sections: Society