For nearly a quarter century, an AP correspondent watched the Putin era unfold in Russia

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

NARVA, Estonia (AP) — Under President Vladimir Putin’s nearly quarter-century in office, Russia’s quality of life rose markedly and the country opened itself to the world. But along with those improvements, political life and media freedoms fell into repression and autocracy. Once Putin launched the war in Ukraine in 2022, a crackdown on the political opposition and independent reporting grew even more severe. An Associated Press correspondent who was in Moscow for all of Putin’s reign until earlier this year has watched Russia’s steps forward as well as its retreat into anger, isolation and animosity.