Pravda Editor Raps Policy on Emigration

Pravda Editor-in-Chief Viktor G. Afanasyev today criticized Soviet emigration policy, saying that delays in processing requests for exit visas were creating negative publicity for Moscow in the West.

His comments in the Communist Party newspaper were a rare case of public treatment of a highly sensitive topic in the Soviet Union, taking the Kremlin’s campaign for greater frankness into the previously untouched area of human rights.

Afanasyev, a member of the Communist Party Central Committee and holder of other official positions as well as Pravda editor, made the remarks in a commentary on his recent visit to Canada.

He said a number of human-rights issues, including the situation of Soviet Jews, were raised during a sharp two-hour discussion with about 20 Canadian members of Parliament.

‘All Is Not Right’

“It seems to us that all is not right here,” Afanasyev said in reference to emigration policy. “Bureaucratic behavior has penetrated here as well. Questions are not always resolved smoothly and quickly.

“We are dragging out, dragging out decisions about the departure of a dissident. The Western press raises a big anti-Soviet fuss about this or that name.”

Without citing examples, Afanasyev said people who want to leave the Soviet Union acquire “hero status” in the West due to protracted delays in their departure.

“Having thought about it for a long time, sometimes too long, we release this ‘great person’ and provide an occasion for the next round of anti-Soviet campaigning,” he said.