Soviets Sentence Defector
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NEW YORK — A Soviet soldier who defected in Afghanistan, came to the United States and then returned to his homeland has been sentenced to 12 years in a Soviet labor camp, a human rights organization said today.
Freedom House said the former soldier, Nikolay Ryzhkov, 22, was tried Dec. 11, 1985, branded a deserter and sent to a strict regime camp in Mordovia, about 180 miles south of Moscow. A source who knew Ryzhkov said the deserter became a house painter in New York but had trouble adjusting to his new surroundings.
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