Wife Seeking Soviet Spouse’s Visa Has Baby
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SPOKANE, Wash. — A woman who has been fighting to have her Soviet husband join her in the United States gave birth Thursday to their first child.
Susan Graham gave birth to a girl at Sacred Heart Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Marilynn Thordarson said.
Three weeks ago, Graham, 31, was braving freezing temperatures in Spokane to gather signatures for a petition drive aimed at allowing her husband, Matvey Finkel, to leave the Soviet Union.
Graham met Finkel while on a study trip to the Soviet Union and married the 38-year-old man seven years ago. She left the Soviet Union recently, where she has lived on and off for the last seven years, to have the child in Spokane so there would be no question of the child’s citizenship.
Soviet officials have given only vague reasons for denying Finkel an exit visa, citing concern with security secrets connected to his military service, Graham has said.
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