The United States government refused to make any comment today on reports from Europe that the Soviet Union would release imprisoned Jewish activist Anatoly Shcharansky in a major East-West swap. “I don’t think any comment I might make would be useful in a situation like this,” State Department spokesman Hodding Carter told reporters.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance also had no comment when he met with reporters after leaving a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But, when asked if such an exchange would be helpful to U.S.-Soviet relations, he said, “Obviously it would be helpful if Mr. Shcharansky were released.”
Meanwhile, the National Conference for Soviet Jewry in New York reported that Shcharansky’s 70-year-old mother, Ido Milgron, has left Moscow to visit her son at Vladimir prison, 120 miles northeast of Moscow. At the some time, the NCSJ said that the whereabouts of Vladimir Slepak and Ido Nudel are unknown. Nudel may be on her way to Novosibirsk in Siberia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
