5 U.S. Citizens in Soviet Union Appeal for Aid

Five U.S. citizens who have spent all or most of their lives in the Soviet Union and been denied permission to emigrate appealed to Washington today “not to forget its hostages in Moscow” and to help them return to the West.

In a press conference in a dingy Moscow apartment, the four men and one woman charged that the Reagan Administration has not done enough to help them.

They also said their case was no different than that of the U.S. Embassy hostages once held in Iran, the Americans still captive in Lebanon, or that of American journalist Nicholas Daniloff, who was arrested in Moscow in August and later released in a swap involving a suspected Soviet spy in the United States.

All Hold Passports

The five all hold U.S. passports by virtue of being born to American citizens. However, the Soviet Union considers them Soviet citizens.

“Daniloff was a hostage and so are we,” said Kim Lewis, a New York-born biologist brought to Moscow by his mother as a baby in 1955.

Lewis said U.S. Embassy officials in Moscow say they are doing everything they can to persuade the Soviets to issue exit visas. But he said the five had received no replies to letters written to Secretary of State George P. Shultz in April and to President Reagan in September.

Others in the group are:

--Andrei Yefremov, son of a Soviet man and an American woman who came to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

--Janet Kotlyar, the daughter of two Americans who came to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

--Abe and Michael Stolar. Abe Stolar was brought to the Soviet Union from the United States at age 19 in 1931. He, his Soviet-born wife, Julia, and their son, Michael, received permission in 1975 to emigrate to Israel, but were stopped at the last minute from boarding a plane.