A Moscow Jewish refusnik has been told by the Deputy Minister of the Interior that she and her family cannot leave the USSR for an “unspecified amount of time” though she has been unemployed and never worked with secret materials, it was reported here by the Al Tidom Association.
Bella Novikova of Moscow was granted an audience with Soviet Deputy Minister Shumilin only to be told that she, her son and her aged parents — all refusniks since 1972 — cannot leave for Israel. Shumilin, the Al Tidom Association reported, told Mrs. Novikova that her record shows that she was employed at a job involving secret work. He declined to reveal the length of time that the refusal will continue.
Though Mrs. Novikova never was exposed to secret information at the factory where she was employed, Al Tidom sources reported that job records of past employes are filled out according to the dictates of the KGB.
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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.