Perhaps his chief of staff. his domestic adviser and his Kremlin counsel have shredded the real records and doctored the rest. Mr. Brezhnev reported that last year 61.000 persons applied to emigrate and that 60.200. all but 800. were granted permission to leave. The fact is that in all of 1972 only 31.700 persons left the Soviet Union for the West. Thus. Mr. Brezhnev has overstated by nearly 100 percent the number of visas granted and the percentage of applicants permitted to go in Mr. Brezhnev reported that. in the first 5 months of 1973. some 10.100 exit permits have been granted. What he failed to say was that this represents a decline in the rate of emigration from last year. a slowingdown since the Moscow summit. Note: 10.100 in 5 months is an annual rate of 24.240. well below the 31.700 of 1972. Moreover. Mr. Brezhnev failed to mention that the rate for the last several weeks shows a steep decline. In the first half of June. the number of visas dropped to a rate of 1.700 a month. Equivalent to annual rate: 20.400 vs. 31.700 in 1972. These are not just numbers that Mr.
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emigrate emigration visas