Five More Refuseniks Given Permission to Leave the USSR

Five more long-time refuseniks have been given permission to leave the Soviet Union, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed Tuesday by Lynn Singer, executive director of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry (LICSJ).

Singer said the information was given her by Vladimir Slepak and Mark Terlitsky in a telephone call from Moscow, both prominent refuseniks still denied exit visas.

According to Singer, the five who will be allowed to emigrate with their families have been granted permission by the Soviet authorities, but actually obtaining their visas is a process that can take from three weeks to two months. They are:

Vladimir Prestin, 53, of Moscow, an electrical engineer; his wife Elena, 54; and their son Mikhail, 23. Prestin first applied for an exit visa in 1970 and was subjected to harassment and frequent arrests.

Boris Kun, 30, of Moscow, an aircraft engineer; his wife Gedi, 30, an economist; their daughter, Pavla, 16. Kun first applied for a visa in 1974 and was refused on grounds he was privy to state secrets. He resigned from his position and has worked at menial jobs since then.

Evgenya Palanker, 48, a computer engineer from Yerevan, Armenian SSR; her husband, Vili, 52; their sons Dmitri, 27, and Evgeny, 21; and mother-in-law, Elizabeta Demanovskaya. Palanker first applied for a visa in 1980. Her husband received permission to leave the USSR but would not without his family.

Emma Landsman, 46, of Moscow, a computer programmer; her husband, Boris, 49, an engineer; and their daughter Aviva, 4. They had applied for visas in 1976.

Valery Lerner, 44, of Moscow, a mathematician and economist; his wife, Janna, 38; and son, Igor, 15. Lerner first applied for a visa in 1977.