A French father convicted to 15 years in prison camp in Siberia has recounted his spectacular escape from Russian through a forest border guarded by fierce dogs and snipers to reach Europe, reports The Telegraph.
In what he called a "double humiliation" for Russian FSB secret services, Yoann Barbereau, 39, managed to evade house arrest in Siberia, go into hiding for a year in Moscow, and then make his way across wolf-infested forests to a neighboring Baltic state - despite being on a national wanted list.
The former local head of the Irkoutsk Alliance Française, a cultural centre similar to the British Council, alleges he was the victim of a crude online "kompromat" campaign - an attempt by local security agents to depict him as a paedophile after hacking into his private photos and usurping his identity.
After 14 months in hiding in Russia, he finally managed to escape and return to France this week, where on Friday he accused French diplomats and former president François Hollande of "cowardice" for failing to stand up to Vladimir Putin over the fate of a compatriot on the foreign ministry's payroll.
Mr Barbereau, was the well-known head of the part state-funded Alliance Française in Irkoutsk, where he lived with his Russian wife and their then five-year old daughter.
However, his nightmare began three years ago when he was abducted by ten men and beaten up for unknown reasons.