When A.P. Correspondent George Krimsky flew out of Moscow last week, expelled on charges of spying for the CIA, TIME Bureau Chief Marsh Clark was among those at the airport to see him off. So was the U.S.S.R.'s leading political gadfly, Physicist Andrei Sakharov, whom Clark had just finished interviewing for this week's cover story. Says Clark: "The real reason for Krimsky's expulsion was his coverage of the dissidents." That explains why reporting on men like Sakharov is such a complex and at times hazardous affair. Clark adds: "Correspondents and KGB agents are well known to one another, for every dissident event is well covered by both." Eastern Europe Correspondent David Aikman notes that U.S. journalists there are not only under perpetual surveillance, but in the past few weeks have suffered harassment and even physical abuse unprecedented since the invasion of Prague in 1968.

Staff Writer Patricia Blake, who wrote the story, is familiar with dissidence. A lifelong student of Russian literature and politics, she was the author of our cover story on the most famous dissenter of all, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Feb. 25, 1974). "I found what Sakharov told Marsh Clark particularly moving," she says. "He breathes compassion."

The departments in which TIME sorts out each week's news remain fairly constant, but when the need arises, we create a new one. In 1973, when the Arabs put an embargo on oil, TIME added a section called Energy, which monitored the fuel shortage, assessed its impact on the economy and explored long-range solutions. When it seemed that the nation was beginning to develop a policy to cope with the problem, the section was phased out, although our readers were kept abreast of every development in other departments, including Nation, Economy & Business and Environment. This week, in the face of the country's recurring fuel crisis, we are reviving the Energy section in order to give the subject the enlarged and intense coverage it requires. In charge: Senior Editor George Church. "People have been predicting major energy shortfalls for five years," says Church, "but this is when the cries of wolf come true. This time it's hit."

The resurrected Energy section will be researched and written by the Business staff, but will also draw on the expertise of Nation, Science and other departments. "We hope not only to describe, but to recommend," says Church. For example, in this issue TIME'S Board of Economists offers suggestions for a national energy policy--two months before President Carter's promised deadline for his program.

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