Statement on Mr and Mrs. Andrei Sakharov's Hunger Strike

December 4, 1981

Academician Andrei Sakharov, a leading Soviet scientist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and his wife have been for over a week on a hunger strike. They are protesting the repeated refusal of the Soviet authorities to grant an exit visa to Mr. Sakharov's daughter-in-law, Elizaveta Alekseeva, to join her husband, Mr. Aleksei Semionov, a student at an American university. The young couple has been separated for a long time. I am concerned for the health of Mr. and Mrs. Sakharov and strongly urge the Soviet Government to allow Mrs. Alekseeva to join her husband.