Local activists for Soviet Jewry told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that intense harassment, threats by the KGB and loss of employment may have caused Dr. Sanya Lipavsky to buckle under pressure and sign a letter that appeared in Izvestia Friday accusing Soviet Jewish emigration activists and dissidents of working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Michael Sherbourne, a London school teacher who has had telephone contacts with Soviet Jewish activists, including Lipavsky in the past, said the Moscow physician used to provide him with telephone numbers where he could reach meetings of Soviet Jews on certain occasions.
Other persons working for the cause of Soviet Jewry told the JTA that Lipavsky has been absent from such gatherings in recent weeks. They said their last report of his activities was on Feb. 9 when the secret police prevented him from flying to Shakhrizabs, in the eastern USSR, to contact Amner Zavurov, a would-be emigrant in trouble with the authorities.
LIPAVSKY’S BACKGROUND DESCRIBED
They described Lipavsky as a married man who applied for an emigration visa for Israel in 1974 and has been under pressure since then by the KGB. On Jan. 30 he was dismissed from his job at a Moscow polyclinic where one of his duties was to certify the physical fitness’ of applicants for drivers’ licenses.
A month earlier, he was suddenly flooded with bribe offers from would-be applicants. He suspected them of being KGB agent provocateurs and angrily turned them away. A few days later he was accused of having signed a corticated of fitness for a person who was allegedly mentally disturbed. The charge was dropped when a senior doctor testified that the applicant was not unfit to drive.
But on Jan. 27, another senior doctor told Lipavsky that complaints had been lodged against him for working too long hours and receiving phone calls. Three days later he was fired. the JTA was told.
The activists believe that the Izyestia letter in which Lipavsky accused a number of Jews seeking exit visas of approaching him to do espionage work for the CIA was genuine but signed under severe pressure and fear for himself and his family. They said if Lipavsky had been working for the KGB he could not have deceived his fellow activists for so long.
CORRECTION: The Daily News Bulletin of March 2 reported from Washington that Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R.NJ) questioned Secretary of State Cyrus Vance about the Palestine Liberation Organization during the hearings by the House International Relations Committee March 1. The questioning was by Rep. Helen S. Mayner (D.NJ).
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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.
