Moscow Sends Some Signals

Senator Percy gets an earful about a potential dialogue

"It was a very frank, factual discussion of the basic differences we have. We laid them right on the table without equivocation." Thus did Republican Senator Charles Percy of Illinois describe his extraordinary meeting last week with Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow. The conference lasted two hours and 40 minutes, more than an hour longer than scheduled. It marked the first time since July 1979, when Brezhnev met with Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, that the Soviet leader has talked in person and at length with a high-level U.S. official. From all appearances, it was a major effort by the Kremlin to launch an early dialogue with the incoming Reagan Administration.

Percy was also given unexpected access to other members of the Soviet leadership's highest echelon: four hours with Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and three hours with Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov. The Illinois Senator had scheduled last week's visit as a private trip before the election. But when the Republicans last month got control of the U.S. Senate, it meant Percy would become head of the Foreign Relations Committee--and thus a man Soviet leaders much wanted to meet.

Though Percy refused to divulge full details of his meetings until he briefed Reagan, the moribund SALT II treaty topped the agenda. According to the Soviet news agency TASS, Brezhnev told Percy that the Soviet Union "is in favor of strengthening relations with the United States on a long-term basis," but warned that such progress could only occur if there was no "stagnation" in the two nations' efforts to limit nuclear weapons.

Percy said he convinced Brezhnev and Gromyko that the unratified SALT II accord was "as dead as a doornail." Percy suggested instead that representatives from both nations meet informally to decide what was worth salvaging from SALT II. Once they reached "reasonable agreement" on at least some principles, it might be possible to begin a new set of negotiations, Percy told the Soviets. "I would be surprised if both sides do not agree to sit down at an early date to discuss arms control," said Percy.

Percy also cautioned Soviet leaders against two actions, either of which would quickly destroy any fresh rapprochement with the U.S.: Soviet moves to deprive the West of oil from the Persian Gulf, or a Soviet invasion of Poland. "Any effort by anyone to jeopardize the secure flow of oil from that region would cause us to react decisively," said Percy. As for the growing crisis in Poland, Percy said that he made it clear "that the use of troops would change the face of the globe. It would call forth an armaments buildup the likes of which we have not seen since World War II."

As he prepared to leave the U.S.S.R. last weekend, Percy was buoyant about his mission to Moscow. "I think it's important that President Brezhnev and President-elect Reagan send signals to each other," said Percy. "They are doing so, in a sense, through me."

In Washington, however, aides of the President-elect quickly distanced themselves from the Percy trip, and insisted that the Senator was never authorized to present Reagan's views to the Kremlin.

"Percy is handling himself badly in Moscow," said one member of the Reagan transition team. "His pompous manner is well understood by us."

The Reagan advisers also say they had noticed the Soviet leaders' conciliatory new tone on one other recent occasion: when a delegation of onetime U.S. foreign policy officials visited Moscow last month. "That sort of sweetness and light is predictable," grumbled a Reagan team member about Percy's reception in Moscow. "But I don't think they gave an inch on foreign policy."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.