QUICK KREMLIN SHAKEUP HELD UNLIKELY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000500260012-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 16, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/11/21 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000500260012-3
THE EVENING STAR DATE (100i-_7D PAGE
THE EVENING STAR,
Washington, D. C., Monday, March 16, 1970
A-S
s*a , .
SP-Oi'LIGHT ON ECONOMIC WOES
Quick Kremlin Shakeup Held Unlike)
ny EDMUND STEVENS
ftwciai to The Star
MOSOM - The current
foreign senors claiming strife
izde lit Kremlin have fo-
cused tb# spotlight on the eco-
nomic 'd lems that beset the
Soviet onion.
Shifts in the Soviet pecking
order we certain to occur in
the future as they have in the
past. But no serious change is
likely until the 24th party con-
gress, presumably scheduled
for fall.
Public laundering would ap-
pear to be unthinkable on the
eve of the April 22 Lenin cen-
tennial billed not only as a
supreme tribute to the founder
of the Soviet state but also as
a vindleation and affirmation
of world Communist unity.
Meantime, the famous but
unp zb#shod Brezhnev letter of
last December and attendant
documents on economic prob-
lems are being widely dis-
cussed throughout the country.
To Rescue 5-year Plan
It's almost as though the
leadersh had heeded the ad-
vice ef, outspoken scientists
and hio*tuals to encourage
maidirAy m airing of serious
mistakes and shortcomings.
Su a bold departure from
es a a Soviet practice
may well have roused objec-
tions in some quarters.
The over-all purpose is to
rum the current five-year
phis, wN in its concluding
yew, by shoring up discipline
and exaoldtig down on absen-
t+eelsi* and alcoholism, both of
which ate related and have
reached gargantuan propor-
kloas.
Tl1e alas is also to cut the
prodigal waste of raw materi-
als and finished products that
results from, a combination of
carelessness and wholesale
pilfering and to promote more
efficient use of productive ca-
pacities with special emphasis
of technological i m pr o v e-
ments.
Cases Common Knowledge
Though the actual texts of
the Brezhnev letter have not
been released, most of the de-
tails are common knowledge.
There was the case of the
cranes ordered from East Ger-
many for the Odessa water-
front that were mistakenly
shipped to Vladivostok where
they lay for more than a year
before being rerouted to their
proper destination.
There was the case of the
natural gas from Tyumen in
the Urals.
In 1965 plans were approved
for the construction of a com-
pressor station to assure the
continued flow of gas to in-
dustrial centers in the Urals.
But construction has still not
started, though the gas mains
the compressor was supposed
to feed have lone since been in
operation and will soon be use-
less due to the falling natural
pressure.
When this happens the entire
Ural's industrial heartland
will be hit.
Iron and Steel Problems
The iron and steel industry
has. been in trouble for years
and its attendant failure to
meet delivery commitments
has affected the whole of
heavy industry.
A typical example was that
of the vast Enakievo iron and
steel complex where a new
converter plant we* -
grammed as a top priority..
Converter furnaces for the
plant were ordered and re-
ceived in . crash time only to
rust in the yard for the next
20 months.
The delay was due to mis-
calculations by the designers
whose blueprints required ex-
tensive revision. Recurring
mistakes of this type have cost
the economy many millions of
tons of pig iron and steel.
Canadian Wheat Bought
The agricultural situation is
also the subject of lively de-
bate. Prospects for the coming
crops are somewhat better
than in 1969, a near disaster
year.
Steps are now being taken t4
remedy the situation.
Kremlin concern with agri
culture was voiced at an ewer.),.,
gency conference called one::
March 4. The ministers of agee:;
riculture of all the union re-
publics were summoned to
Moscow where they met with.:;
party secretary Leonid Brezh
nev.
Dimitry Polyansky, Politboro
member and first deputy pre-
mier; Fyodor Kulakov, party
Central. Committee secretary,
and a number of leading
agricultural experts also at-
tended the session.
A piquant gesture in the
present agricultural effort is
That was mainly due to de-
structive hurricanes in the
north Caucasus breadbasket
and to severe frosts that killed
the grain crops in central
Asia, where millions of cattle
and sheep froze to death on
the ranges.
To compensate for last
year's rain deficit, the Soviets
in December bought 3.43 mil-
lion tons of Canadian wheat
for close to $250 million.
Most of this amount has al-
ready been delivered, includ-
ing half a million tons to
Cuba's Fidel Castro. Much of
the remainder went to the So-
viet Union's other clients and
proteges, including President
Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.
One serious consequence of
last year's poor gram harvest
is a shortage of seed grain.
According to the ministry of
agriculture, one quarter of the
collective farms and state
farms in the Soviet Union are
short of seed.
And the quality of much of
*Mt is available is inferior.
the decision to increase sow-
ings of corn, former Premier.
Nikita S. Khrushchev's beloved~
crop which fell out of favor''
with his downfall. But the ie.
habilitation of corn does so
necessarily involve its onex
time patron.
Approved For Release 2005/11/21 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000500260012-3
 Approved For Release 2005/11/21 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000500260012-3
THE F'V-WNTNCr STAR DATE (6 ___
SUBVERSION IN MEXICO
Defector Assails Russia
By JEREMIAH O'LEARY
Latin America writer of The Star
Soviet spies were deeply in-
vdved in stimulating the stu-
disturbances which re-
M at least 100 deaths in
Mexico City just before the
1968 Olympics there, a Rus-
sian defector is reported as
saying.
Miss Raisa Yerofeyevna
Kiselnikova, 32, the beautiful,
blond defector, made known
the Russian involvement in the
clash between the leftist stu-
dents and the Mexican army
from her secret residence
somewhere in Mexico, in-
formed sources said.
Miss Kiselnikova, who was a
secretary at the Russian
Trade Mission, has been
granted asylum and is now liv-
Mg a new life of freedom with
a new identity.
She is reported to have said
that she made the decision to
renounce her Soviet citizen-
ship partly because she feared
reassignment and possible liq-
uidation in her homeland and
partly because she was hound-
ed constantly by Oleg Nechipo-
renko, chief of the Soviet Em-
bassy consulate section in
Mexico City.
Nechiporenko, she was quot-
ed as saying, was the official
responsible for the conduct of
all Soviet personnel stationed.
in Mexico.
Superior Was Recalled
She said that her immediate
superior, Commercial Counsel-
lor Yuri Vanovsky, was hur-
PAGE
The secretary was quopsd as
saying the consular seeties is,
staffed by four people who are
engaged in issuing visas only
two half-days a week. Thereat
of their time is devoted to
spying.
Spying Is Main Job
"This is what I objewt to "
she said. "If the USSR apa"t
influence by good exam
for foreigners in the tl ,
why should it try to in0volft
others to its cause b
and buying clandes
port? I oppose it."
Miss Kiselnikova, who L sio.
gle, said her parents are 4s .
She was born in Bra, $a
"one mistake."
She was raised by
mol, the Soviet youth group,
"~'hete are here in, Mexico with the trade ministry were
,
-other Russians like' myself in East and West Germany.
who are working sincerely for before she was ordered to
honest and honorable commer- Mexico in June 1968. Since her
cial and diplomatic relations, defection, Mexican authorities
Unfortunately, we were a mi- made her available to Soviet
nority group whose honest officials once so she could
aims were constantly subvert. ;state in person her request for,
Approved For Re~?fl1tR[
RAISA YEROFEYEVNA KISELNIKOVA
riedly recalled to Moscow aft-
er her defection.
This is the rest of her ac-
count, as relayed by the. in-
formed sources:
Soviet Mission, was , tapped
and conversations- were moni-
"My life is in danger," Miss
Kiselnikova said. "I, of
course, must fear being kid-
naped back. But I have felt a
greater freedom of spirit dur-
ing these weeks than I have
felt for many years."
She said life is impossible in
the Soviet Union for all think-
ing persons, not. just the
well-known writers the West-
ern world hears about. With-
out having been in Mexico for
almost two years and seeing
the freedom possible in an
open society, she said she cer-
tainly would never have been
able to make the drastic deci-
sion to defect.
"The People of the Soviet
mission here ZMexico), my
own people, constantly spied
on me, doubted me and ques-
tioned me," Miss Kiselnikova
said. "My telephone line, as
with all the telephones in the