Many of us here tonight wrote the President and later telegraphed him in Moscow urging that he raise the question of human rightsboth of Soviet Jews and Lithuanian Catholicswith the Soviet leadership. But after the Presidents visit. the situation further deteriorated. As early as the fall of 1970 reports indicated that a new and heavy tax would be imposed on those Soviets wishing to emigrate and that the amount of tax would vary in accordance with the amount of education that person had received. After the Presidents visit. and after major trade agreements were signed. the "ransom" would range from 2.000 rubles to 25.000 rubles or even as high as 87.000 rubles and would be further computed according to the country to which an individuala Jewish individualdesired to go. There is no guarantee that these ransom rates will not rise even higher.
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emigrate