‘They believed he was alive’: Russian national who disappeared 20 years ago freed from forced labor in Kazakhstan. His family tried to find him, but never went to the police.

Police in Kazakhstan have freed a Russian national from modern-day slavery, the local news outlets New Times and Tengrinews reported this week. Police officers tracked the man down in the Shet district of the Karaganda region in central Kazakhstan, after they came across a video of him pleading for help from his family. The man in the video, who identified himself as Alexey Kotov, went missing over 20 years ago after he was assaulted at a train station. Kotov's family members, who live in Russia's Yaroslavl region, told the local human rights commissioner that they believed Alexey was alive and made attempts to find him, but never reached out to Russian law enforcement agencies for help. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/11/17/they-believed-he-was-alive