Reparations for Jews who were held in the former Soviet Union against their will

There was a struggle for the right of Jews living in the former USSR to immigrate to Israel. The great advance happened in 1974, soon after the events of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. There was the so-called detente, or reduction of tensions between the USSR and the United States, which paved the way for mass immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel.

However many of these Jews were forced to remain in the Soviet Union for years after their requests to emigrate to Israel were rejected. These Jews, known as refuseniks, were forced to stay in the Soviet Union against their will, which contradicted the basic principles of human rights.

I know this very well because my family was forced to stay in the Soviet Union for 12 years. We first asked for a permission to leave the USSR in 1963, and in fact I was only allowed to leave in 1975. My parents were allowed to leave in 1976. This makes for 12 years of illegal confinement in my case, and 13 years in the case of my parents.

Russia is the country which assumed the rights and responsibilities of the former Soviet Union after its dissolving in 1990-1991. This is partly because the governing center of the USSR was in Moscow, the capital of Russia.

Russia is then the address for the legal process whose aim is reparations for Jews who were held there for many years against their will.  Today's Russia is interested in improved relations with the West and close ties with Western economies, and it would only be fair to ask Russia to compensate Jews who suffered under its former government. There should be a class action of behalf of Jews who were forced to remain in the USSR and were also punished for their requests to leave.