Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that Boris Azernikov, the Soviet Jewish activist sentenced in 1971 to three-and-a-half years imprisonment in Camp Potma 19, has been released in Leningrad to which he was transferred last week. Despite his ordeal, he is in good health.
Azernikov has also received an exit visa to go to Israel. He is expected to leave the Soviet Union on March 6. Azernikov, a dentist, expressed his gratitude to all who campaigned on his behalf, and especially to the British Dental Association. He said that he hoped he would be able to visit Britain at the end of March.
(In New York, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today that former Red Army Col. Naum Alshansky of Minsk, was granted permission to emigrate after a four-year long struggle. Former Army Captain Gennady Kipnis, a colleague of Alshansky, was allowed to leave last year, after authorities called off a “show trial” that was to implicate a number of former army personnel. Of the original group, now only Col. Efim Davidovich, a colleague of Alshansky who is still harassed by authorities, remains in Minsk.)
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