Russian Communist Party Secretary Brezhnev held a meeting with a number of U.S. Senators and Congressmen. At that meeting he sought to soften congressional opposition to special trade concessions for his country by offering very misleading data on Jewish emigration. Mr. Brezhnev claimed that over 60.000 exit visas had been issued in 1972. In fact only 31.700 people received exit visas last year with more than 100.000 others still waiting. Mr. Brezhnev also claimed that 10.000 exit visas had been granted in the first 5 months of 1973. This is a lower rate of emigration than the 1972 rate. On an annual basis. this would mean a 25percent reduction in emigration from the previous year. Another of his claims referred to the recent announcement that the notorious exit tax was no longer being enforced. History has shown us that the Soviet Union enforces and then ignores its own exit tax statutes whenever it hopes to win a particular favor from the West.
Keywords matched
emigration visas