Sakharov. in a statement released by his wife. Elena Bonner. said. "I need the right to do my civic duty as my conscience dictates." He said Soviet authorities are "trying to degrade and discredit me" in a way that "unties the governments hand for any future repression of dissidents inside the country." Sakharov. who has been banished to Gorki. said the "main reason for my repression" was his recent series of statements condemning the invasion last month of neighboring Afghanistan. "The repressions taken against me were done at a moment of overall worsening of the international situation and an escalation in the repression of dissent internally." These new world tensions. he said. were "caused by the U.S.S.R.. culminating in the invasion. where Soviet troops wage a pitiless war against the insurgents and the Afghan people." Sakharov said his isolation left his family defenseless and demanded that his motherInlaw. Ruth Bonner. and the fiance of his stepson be allowed to emigrate. His stepson already lives in the United States. The Sakharov declaration was composed by his wife from mental notes she said she made in conversations with her husband before leaving Gorki for the train trip to Moscow yesterday.
Keywords matched
emigrate