Soviet dissident dies in Boston

SOVIET dissident Yelena Bonner, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov and tireless critic of Vladimir Putin, has died aged 88 in her adopted home in the United States.

A paediatrician by training but a historic figure in life, Bonner died on Saturday in Boston after undergoing heart surgery, said her friend and fellow rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

After a suburban Boston ceremony, Bonner’s ashes will be interred next to her husband’s remains at Moscow’s Vostryakovo Cemetery, her daughter said in a statement released yesterday.