The Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A family member says that Yelena Bonner, a Russian rights activist and widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, has died in Boston.

Both were prominent dissidents in the Soviet era.

Tatiana Yankelevich, Bonner's daughter, says her 88-year-old mother died Saturday afternoon. Yankelevich says Bonner had chronic cardiac problems and had been hospitalized since Feb. 21.

Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bonner remained a fierce defender of democracy in Russia. In recent years, her criticism focused on the leadership of Vladimir Putin.