U.S.-Soviet Couple Plead for Exit Visa

A pregnant American and her Soviet husband stood on a rain-swept Moscow street today to protest authorities’ refusal to let the man leave the Soviet Union for the birth of their child in December.

Susan Graham and her husband, Matvey Finkel, who has been denied permission to emigrate since their marriage in December, 1979, held a banner with a plea to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “have mercy on our child.”

Both wore white T-shirts with slogans in English. “Let my daddy go,” read an inscription on Graham’s shirt.

The protest took place outside the press center of the Foreign Ministry as reporters entered for a news conference.

“I want to see my child. My child has to have both parents and not only a picture on the wall,” Finkel said.

Graham, a native of Spokane, Wash., said she will leave the Soviet Union by early November for the birth of their child, expected Dec. 22.

She said her husband had received his latest refusal for an exit visa in the past week. Soviet officials rejected his request to go to Stockholm on a temporary exit visa to attend the birth, she said.

Graham has been in Moscow for three years working as a nanny for various Western correspondents.