The World - News from Feb. 24, 1986

Dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, 64, signed away his right to leave the Soviet Union in exchange for official permission for his wife, Yelena Bonner, to visit the United States for medical care, according to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine published letters attributed to Sakharov that it said were smuggled from the Soviet Union. One of these letters said, “I accept the Soviet authorities’ right to refuse me permission to travel beyond the country’s borders, since I did in the past have access to especially important secret material of a military nature, some of which might be of significance even now.”