Charges of anti-Soviet propaganda and contact with foreigners have been brought against Valery Panov, the ballet dancer who was fired from Leningrad’s Kirov Ballet after he applied for an exit visa to go to Israel. Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that Panov was summoned to the KGB (secret police) headquarters where the charges were presented to him. He refused to sign the charge sheet.
Moshe Mendelevich, the father of Yosef Mendelevich, a Leningrad trial defendant serving a 12-year sentence at a strict regime labor camp, has been ordered to leave the Soviet Union by May 24, Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today. The sources said the elder Mendelevich was told by the head of the Riga visa bureau that his Soviet citizenship has been revoked and that he must leave for Israel.
He has refused to leave as long as his son is in prison. On May 9 he was visited by police at his home and was warned that if he is not out of the country by May 24 he would be placed on a plane forcibly as a stateless person, the sources said.
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.
