MOSCOW VIEWS SHULTZ TRIP AS CRUCIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 12, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850002 1 TAT
WASHINGTON POST
12 April 1987
Moscow Views
Shultz Trip
As Crucial
Missile- Pact With Reagan
May Hang on Kremlin Talks
By Don Oberdorfer
Washington Post Staff Writer
MOSCOW, April 11-A senior Soviet official said to-
day that Secretary of State George P. Shultz's visit
here next week will determine for Moscow whether an
arms control agreement is still possible in the remain-
ing months of the Reagan administration.
The official, who is actively involved in preparing fore
the three days of talks that begin Monday, said Soviet:-
leader Mikhail Gorbachev's latest proposal to hold sep-;
arate negotiations on short-range nuclear missiles was_
intended to remove the last major obstacle to an early.
agreement on the removal of medium-range weapons;
from Europe.
"The Shultz visit will be crucial in ascertaining-
whether this administration wants to have agreements.
with us," said the official, who asked not to be quoted by
name. Calling an intermediate-range nuclear forces:
(INF) accord "our priority now," the official indicated:
that Moscow is prepared to strike a bargain on such a:
pact, despite increasingly strident exchanges over em.
bassy espionage charges in both capitals.
Given the importance of the Shultz visit, Soviet os
ficials and other observers say they are particularly up;:
set by the rhetorical cross fire over bugging efforts.
rival embassies. They believe the charges of intrusiot4
by Soviet agents into the U.S. Embassy here have beets;
exploited by hard-liners in Washington seeking to;
thwart prospects for real progress in arms control an[.
other important matters at a crucial juncture in US.
Soviet relations.
Georgi Arbatov, director of Moscow's Institute of
U.S.A. and Canada and a leading expert on U.S. affairs;'
said, "It has become a routine operation for your people'
[Americans] to have the kettle of emotions on the fre,
to raise these problems, whenever something looked as,
though it is improving between us." . .
Among the incidents mentioned by Arbatov or otheat,
Soviet officials were:.
^ The U.S. discovery of a "Soviet combat brigade" it
Cuba in August 1979, as the U.S. Senate was preparing
to take up ratification of the SALT II strategic armg;
treaty. It turned out after weeks of tense top-level d>i
plomacy that the brigade had been in Cuba since 196%
and was long known to the United States.
^ U.S. charges of "murder" lodged against the Soviet
Union in the.M~oggn`'down & a South Korean airlinea~
on Aug. 31, 1983 as, some officials in the ,Reagan a4
ministration were moving toward a tions between the United States
step-by-step improvement in U.S: and the Soviet Union" and find ways
Soviet relations. "It has become ab- to cause trouble at important times,
:solutely clear," said Arbatov, "that Arbatov charged.
your people, while raising such a A Soviet Foreign Ministry offi-
moralistic outcry, knew for sure cial, taking a different tack, said he
that we thought it [the airliner] was wondered if the State Department
a U.S. military airplane." has "a rule in its books" that it
^ Official charges in July and Au- should always create "a tense at-
gust 1985, during early prepara- mosphere" to improve the U.S. bar-
tions for the Geneva summit, that a gaining position at key meetings.
possibly cancer-causing "spy dust" The official said he would be very
was being used by Soviet intelli. concerned if the highly publicized
gence to keep track of U.S. Embas- issue of Moscow embassy security,
sy personnel. It turned out, months which he said had been little dis-
later, that the "tracking powder" cussed in official channels, should
had been used at times for decades turn out to be "a signal" that Wash-
and that there was no evidence that ington is not serious about arms
it causes cancer. control bargaining.
? The arrest and incarceration of Besides the distracting flap over
Gennadi Zakharov, a Soviet em- espionage at the embassy, Soviet
ploye of the United Nations, on spy- officials remain unimpressed by re-
b1g charges last August as the two cent shifts in the U.S. bargaining
leaderships were exchanging arms positions on strategic weapons and
control proposals that led to the space-bayed defenses, the other
Reykjavik summit. Zakharov's ar- two areas of arms control, besides
rest triggered the Soviet retaliatory medium-range missiles in Europe,
arrest a week later of American being discussed at the Geneva ne-
journalist Nicholas Daniloff, which gotiations,
in turn dominated previously sched- A decision by President Reagan
Wed meetings between Shultz and to cut back his guaranteed adher-
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard ence to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Mis-
Shevardnadze. rile treaty limits that would restrain
"I can't believe your people in development of the Strategic Re-
arresting Zakharov did not take into fense Initiative (SDI)-from a 10-
account there would be an answer year period, beginning in 1986, to a
from the Soviet side, especially five-year period, beginning when-
when contrary to established prac- ever a new treaty takes effect-
tire, they did not put him into the would be "a tremendous step back"
custody of the Soviet ambassador" from the U.S. position at the Reyk-
rather than keeping him in jail, Ar- javik summit and in follow-up dis-
.batov said. cussions in Vienna and Geneva, ac-
In the current 'case, it has been cording to the senior Soviet official.
'noted here that Sgt. Clayton Lone- Such a shift in position gas de-
:tree, allegedly the key U.S. Marine scribed as "absolutely unacceptable"
:guard in the embassy espionage to the Soviet Union and thus would
:affair, left Moscow in March 1986 pose a significant new impediment
and Cpl. Arnold Bracy, his alleged to a U.S.-Soviet accord on a drastic
"accomplice, left Moscow last Sep- reduction in strategic arms, which
:tember. Lonetree's confession is tied to a space arms agreement.
:dates to last December and Amer- [U.S. officials in Washington Sat-
ican public knowledge to a Los An. urday clarified earlier statements
:geles Times story Jan. 10. about the new administration po-
The accusations were made pub- sition, saying that Shultz was spe-
lic months ago, Arbatov said, "but cifically authorized to tell the Soviet
after Gorbachev's [Feb. 281 propos. leaders that the United States is
al [on missiles in Europe] and the willing to abide by the "broad" or
news that Shultz was coming, sud- permissive interpretation of the
denly everything flared up with tre- ABM treaty through 1994, Wash-
mendous details that have never ington Post staff writer R. Jeffrey
been proven. Smith reported.
"It is absolutely obvious that [Because negotiations and rati-
there are rather influential people, *fication would take nearly two
groups, maybe institutions, that are years ~ no strategic arms treaty is
against any normalization of rela-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850002-1