Anna Nemtsova: The costs of exile
People pay their last respects to Georgian former economy minister Kakha Bendukidze during the civil funeral ceremony in Tbilisi, on November 22, 2014. Georgian statesman Kakha Bendukidze -- a top aide to Ukraine's president and a respected champion of economic reforms in his own ex-Soviet republic -- has died in London aged 58.
These days, the authorities in post-Soviet countries are making a habit of persecuting their opponents in order to maintain social control. In many cases, the victims -- intellectuals, activists, artists -- prefer to leave their home country before their governments have a chance to arrest them. Even those exiles that manage to find a comfortable and safe refuge abroad end up dreaming of the day they can safely return home.
