The case evokes memories of the days when the KGB’s influence was pervasive, and dissidents across Eastern Europe and Soviet lands like Turkmenistan lived in fear. Hadjiev and his family fled to Europe in 2001, escaping one of the world’s most repressive regimes: the absolutist dictatorship of the late Saparmurat Niyazov, who fancied himself “Turkmenbashi,” the father of all Turkmen.