SOVIET GRIP ON SAKHAROV TIED TO NUCLEAR TREATY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605730006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: July 21, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605730006-6
ART 2 CLI APPUR0
ON PAGER
WASHINGTON POST
21 July 1985
Soviet Grip on Sakharov
Tied to Nuclear Treaty
Release Might Spread Secrets, Official Says
By Spencer Rich
w..mgua N" suu wrwr
A high-ranking Soviet official told
Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) on July 9
that dissident physicist Andrei Sa-
kharov would never be permitted to
leave the Soviet Union because his
emigration would violate the 1969
nuclear nonproliferation treaty, ac-
cording to documents provided by
Simon's office.
The State Department, in inter-
nal documents, characterized the
Soviet arguments as "ludicrous" and
"bizarre."
Simon, whose congressional ca-
reer has focused heavily on educa-
tional matters, was in Moscow to
discuss the possibility of expanding
educational, cultural and scientific
exchanges.
During the discussions with So-
viet officials, he raised the issue of
Sakharov, a world-famous physicist
known as "the father of the Soviet
H-bomb." In recent years, Sakharov
has been a critic of the Soviet re-
gime and for the past several years
has been confined to the city of
Gorki, which is off-limits to foreign-
ers.
Simon reportedly was told by
Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov,
president of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, that allowing Sakharov to
emigrate would be a violation of the
nonproliferation treaty, which was
signed by the United States and the
Soviet Union, among other nations.
Alexandrov said that since Sakha-
rov had been privy to nuclear se-
crets and knowledge of how to con-
struct nuclear weapons, he could
transmit this knowledge to other
countries or groups if allowed to
emigrate. Another Soviet official
present reportedly interrupted to
suggest that the knowledge could
even land in the hands of terrorists.
Alexandrov reportedly also com-
plained that when Sakharov's wife,
Yelena Bonner, was allowed to go
to Italy for medical treatment, she
had also visited the United States
without permission and without an-
nouncing her plans.
In a telephone interview yester-
day, Tanya Yankelevich, daughter
of Bonner and stepdaughter of Sa-
kharov, confirmed that Bonner had
visted her and other relatives in the
United States for about a month in
February 1979. Yankelevich said
Bonner had not publicly announced
Alexandrov said
that since Sakharov
had been privy to
weapons secrets, he
might transmit this
knowledge to other
countries or groups.
the visit'because she wanted it to be
a family matter and "she never tried
to use her visits abroad to slander
any person or any country. The fact
that this was not known to you
proves her good intentions."
Yankelevich also said the idea
that Sakharov is confined to pre-
vent him giving away nuclear se-
crets is "a silly excuse," because he
had had many opportunities to do so
when foreign scientists had visited
him, but had not done so. "Not once
did Dr. Sakharov offer these se-
crets to anyone," she said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605730006-6