Bonner Leaves for Italy and U.S.; Tells Press ‘I Can’t Talk’

Yelena Bonner, wife of dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, flew to Italy today for medical treatment but told reporters that she was under orders not to speak to them if she hoped to return to her husband.

“I cannot speak to you,” the frail, silver-haired Bonner told Western reporters in a strained voice at Moscow’s airport. “I intend to return and I have signed a document not to talk to the Western media. I hope you understand.”

But she did thank reporters for “the interest you are taking now and over the years.”

Her Alitalia flight was 30 minutes late in departing after customs officials spent about half an hour searching Bonner’s seven pieces of luggage.

Bonner, 62, was to be treated for an eye ailment in Italy and then travel to the United States for heart bypass surgery and a reunion with family members near Boston before returning to the Soviet Union.