Vasily Aksyonov, one of the last dissident writers to be exiled from the Soviet Union, has died in a Moscow hospital at the age of 76. Aksyonov wrote novels about the dark side of the Soviet system during a period of relative freedom following the death of Stalin in 1953.

When censorship became stricter in the 1970s his writing was banned and he wrote his best known work Generations of Winter in the United States after being forced into exile in 1980. He returned to Russia ten years later.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to him, describing his death as "an enormous irreplaceable loss for Russian literature".