Ballet dancer whose struggle to leave the Soviet Union in 1972 caused an international outcry that led to his release The virtuoso ballet dancer Valery Panov, who has died aged 87, became a cause célèbre in 1972 when, with his second wife, the ballerina Galina Ragozina, he applied for, and was refused, exit visas to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. It was fortunate that his dancing in the 1960s had attracted the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM on July 10, 2025