Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of House Resolution 286. by which my colleagues and I associate ourselves with the hunger strike protest by Andrei Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner. and urge the Soviet Union to allow their daughterinlaw Liza Alekseyeva to emigrate to join her husband Aleksei Semyenov in the United States. The Soviet Unions refusal to allow Liza Alekseyeva to join Aleksei Semyenov violates the Final Act of the Helsinki accords. which guarantees the rights of Eastern Europeans to emigrate freely. Further. the Soviet Unions refusal violates the Soviet Unions Matrimonial Code. which states that "marriages between Soviet citizens and foreigners contracted outside the U.S.S.R.. provided that the formal requirements established by law of the place of such contract are met. are recognized as authentic in the U.S.S.R." Aleksei Semyenov and Liza Alekseyeva were joined in matrimony by proxy in June 1981. and are legally married in the eyes of the United States. That these two young people continue to be separated against their wills is a shamerful violation of human rights by the Soviet Union.
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emigrate