Shcharansky’s Family to Join Him in Israel

MOSCOW —  The 77-year-old mother of Anatoly Shcharansky and other Moscow relatives have received the Kremlin’s approval to emigrate to Israel and be reunited with the former Soviet human rights activist, it was disclosed Sunday.

In Tel Aviv, Shcharansky said that Moscow’s permission for his relatives to join him was aimed at smoothing the way for a forthcoming meeting of Soviet and Israeli officials to discuss consular issues.

Israeli officials said last week that “middle-ranking” Soviet and Israeli delegations are to meet soon, at the request of the Kremlin, to discuss property in Jerusalem owned by the Russian Orthodox Church and other matters. It will be the first such formal contact between the two since Moscow broke diplomatic ties with Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Family to Fly to Vienna

Leonid Shcharansky, a 40-year-old engineer who lives in the shadow of his celebrated younger brother, said the family will fly to Vienna on Aug. 23, then go on to Israel.

Anatoly Shcharansky, 38, a computer scientist who helped form a human rights group to monitor the Helsinki accords in the Soviet Union, was imprisoned after being convicted of being an American spy. He served eight years of a 13-year sentence before being freed last Feb. 11 in an East-West prisoner exchange.

He always denied that he was a spy, and then-President Jimmy Carter said that Shcharansky had no connection with the CIA.

Even after his release, however, Soviet officials have labeled him “a stool pigeon” for the CIA.

At the time of his release, Shcharansky’s mother, Ida Milgrom, his brother, Leonid, and the latter’s wife, Raya, 40, and their two sons, Alexander, 14, and Boris, 1, were expected to join him within a few weeks.

Shcharansky’s Complaint

Shcharansky had complained publicly that the Soviet government was backing down on a promise to let his mother and other relatives leave the Soviet Union.

Speaking to Western reporters Sunday, Leonid Shcharansky said: “Mother is very pleased. We are all very glad. After all these years, at last it is the end of the whole story.”

In Tel Aviv on Sunday, Anatoly Shcharansky told reporters: “This morning, I spoke to my crying mother. She told me they had received permission and so, in another three weeks, with God’s help, everyone will be in Jerusalem.”

Anatoly has become a celebrity in Israel, where now lives with his wife, Avital. When he was in prison, he was allowed to see his mother only infrequently, and he did not see her before he was flown out of the Soviet Union to East Berlin for the prisoner exchange.

Despite her years, Ida Milgrom had campaigned relentlessly for her son’s release, and she broke down, sobbing, when she heard last February that he had been freed.

The family discussed Anatoly’s fate every day while he was in prison and after his release, Leonid Shcharansky said.

“Now I am satisfied that all our difficulties are over,” he added. “We are looking forward to a quiet life.”