Bonner to Return to Soviet Union by End of May, Relative Says

Yelena Bonner told her husband, dissident Soviet physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, that she will return to the Soviet Union by the end of May, a relative said Friday.

“He told her she should stay (in the United States) as long as possible to take care of her health problems,” said her son-in-law, Efrem Yankelevich.

Bonner’s Soviet travel visa expires on June 2. She has been in the West since December for heart surgery and other medical treatment.

Yankelevich said Bonner told Sakharov of her plans in a 30-minute telephone call Thursday, during which Bonner actually spoke with Sakharov “for about five minutes because the rest was interrupted” by static.

He said static, which the family blames on Soviet security agents, cut off conversation whenever Bonner broached sensitive topics such as allegedly secret video tapes of Sakharov released last month to Western press agencies.

Yankelevich said Sakharov reported “he is all right.”