Mr. Speaker. for months now Members of Congress have been working to bring about the early release of Soviet prisoner of conscience Alexei Magarik from the confines of a Siberian prison. in hopes that he and Natalia Ratner could immigrate to Israel and be reunited with their father and sister. But despite our efforts. even in this period of declared "openness" in the Soviet Union. the Soviets seem to have paid little attention to our pleadings. Despite the fact that Alexei Magarik was jailed on trumpedup charges. is experiencing failing health and torturous jail conditions. has never had access to any secret information. and in no way poses a risk to the security of the Soviet Union. the Soviets did not free Magarik until Monday. just 1 day prior to his previously announced release date. This is not to say. however. that we in Congress are not extremely gratified by the release of Alexei Magarik and the recent granting of exit visas to other wellknown refuseniks. This is to say that we in the United States should keep our guards up even as we applaud these encouraging announcements. A recent event with which I was directly involved causes me to remain skeptical about the sincerity of Soviet intentions regarding their "openness" policy.
Keywords matched
immigrate visas