Reunited couple comes to grief

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 8

Reunited couple comes to grief

NZPA-AP Ann Arbor, Michigan A woman who worked for four years to persuade the Soviet authori-

ties to grant her husband an exit visa has filed for divorce, a year after he arrived in the United States.

The divorce suit filed by Sandra Gubin seeks more than SUSIOO,OOO, ($193,497), including an estimated SUS2O,OOO she spent on efforts to obtain exit documents for her husband, Alexei Lodisev, the “Ann Arbor News” reported yesterday. Miss Gubin declined comment on the suit. She also asked that no story be printed, saying that the Soviet Government could use such information to deny exit visas to at least 14 other people seeking to leave the Soviet Union to join spouses in the West. During her campaign to get Mr Lodisev out of the Soviet Union, Miss Gubin repeatedly lobbied Soviet and United States diplomatic representatives, and played an important role in the Divided Spouse Coalition, a Washington-based or-

ganisation of American men and women married to Soviet citizens who have been denied exit papers. Miss Gubin met Mr Lodisev in 1981 when she was studying in Kiev. They were married there, but she had to leave the Soviet Union when her visa expired. Mr Lodisev was denied permission to acccompany her to the United States.

He arrived in the United States a year ago. Miss Gubin, aged 39, a graduate student in political science at the University of Michigan, charges in court papers that Mr Lodisev, aged 34, had told her that once they were reunited in the United States he would repay debts she incurred while gaining his freedom, pay her post-gradu-ate educational expenses and support her, the “News” reported. She said Mr Lodisev got a job in April with an Ann Arbor computer company, with a SUS3B,OOO annual salary, but had refused to pay rent on their apartment or other expenses.