Slave to fear: Ghosts of the Gulag haunt modern Russia [Video]

When Russians started being arrested for opposing the Ukraine offensive, Maria felt the same kind of fear she guessed her ancestors, victims of repression under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, must have lived through.

Now two and a half years into its military offensive, Russia has imprisoned hundreds for protesting or speaking out against the campaign — even in private — in a crackdown that has paralysed the Kremlin’s domestic critics.

“It’s not normal when you start behaving like your ancestors did. Twitching every time the phone rings… thinking all the time about who you are talking with and what you are talking about,” Maria, a 47-year-old from Moscow, told AFP.

“My fear is growing.”

Leafing through a book with photos of victims of Stalin’s purges, Maria pointed to her great-grandfather.

Of Polish origin, he was declared an “enemy of the people” and executed in 1938 for “spying”.

He was posthumously rehabilitated after Stalin’s death in 1953.

His wife was also targeted, spending four …