Bonner in Clash With Soviet Aide
Yelena Bonner, wife of exiled Soviet dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, engaged Friday in a telephone shouting match with a Soviet Embassy official over whether her 90-day exit visa would be extended, a relative said.
“It was rather a tense conversation,” Bonner’s son-in-law, Efrem Yankelevich, said. “She shouted at him.”
But the official “remained very low-key,” said her daughter, Tatyana Yankelevich.
A Soviet Embassy spokeswoman in Washington had no comment.
Bonner telephoned the embassy in Washington to find out whether her visa, which allowed her to come to the United States for medical treatment, would be extended. She requested the extension in order to undergo further medical tests.
She arrived late last year and was released from a Boston hospital 2 1/2 half weeks ago after open heart surgery.
“They (Soviet consular officials) are saying they never told her the extension was approved,” Efrem Yankelevich said.
“Now they are saying it is still under consideration and they can’t send her passport back.”
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