Fabio Gadea, a well-known conservative radio journalist, is pushing 80 but is popular in the rural areas that the opposition has previously struggled to win.

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In Afghanistan he subsequently covered the collapse of the Taliban, and was the only western journalist to interview, via radio and in Arabic, Al-Qaeda fighters holed up in the rugged mountains of Tora Bora.

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Speaking on the state-owned television station Radio Television Russia (RTR), the journalist said his release had taken him by surprise.

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