President. Nobel prize winning physicist and outspoken political dissident Andrei Sakharov was arrested on the snowy streets of Moscow by the KGB and he was sent to Gorki. where he still is in political isolation. cut off from his family and friends. and in great danger of losing his life. He has asked to be able to emigrate from the Soviet Union. He has been flatly denied that. Here was a man who. as a matter of fact. developed the Soviet Union version of the hydrogen bomb. but a man who is also a great advocate of arms control and disagrees very strongly with the aggressive policies of the Soviet Union. After braving the political isolation of Gorki for 3 years. Sakharov finally said. if granted an exit visa. he would be willing to leave the Soviet Union. Once he leaves. Sakharov knows he will never be allowed to return. There was an offer for Sakharov to teach at the University of Vienna and hopes were raised in the West that he would be allowed to leave. However. after weeks of speculation that Sakharov might be granted this visa. the Soviet official news agency Tass said that Sakharov would be barred from traveling abroad. According to Tass. the reason for this prohibition on travel is that the physicist. who developed the Soviet Unions hydrogen bomb. was by the nature of his work a scientist in possession of state and military secrets. Soviet authorities claim that. in the interest of national security.
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