KREMLIN-WATCHERS SCOFF AT HINTS THAT SOVIETS MAY LEAVE AFGHANISTAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706660013-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706660013-6
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Kremlin-watchers scoff at hints that Soviets ma
y
leave Af 'tan
Despite earlier signs of flexibility
Soviet troops still involved in conflict
By Gary Thaidt~
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Moscow
Despite broad hints of Soviet "flexibility" on a politi-
cal solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, many Krem-
lin-watchers here are skeptical.
Six years after Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, at-
tention is focused again on the Soviet role in the country.
A new round of talks has opened in Geneva between the
Afghan government and neighboring Pakistan, home to
nearly 3 million Afghan refugees. The talks are aimed at
hammering out an agreement under which the troops
could be withdrawn and the refugees could return home.
"We keep hearing the same hints [of Soviet flexibil-
ity], but we don't see them matched by actions," says a,
weH-idiplomat. .
To be sure, the hints keep coming. The president of
the bench National Assembly, Louis Merman, said after
a recent visit to Moscow that he had heard "highly inter-
esting" things from the Kremlin leadership about
Afghanistan.
But some diplomats are skeptical, noting that they
heard broad hints of Soviet willingness to end the Af-
ghan conflict during the summer of 1984, but nothing
came of them.
The fighting continues unabated. In one of the most
recent reports, up to 65 Afghan government troops were
reported killed in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The
deaths came as the result of a bomb planted in the capital
- the latest in a string of explosions in or near the city.
The Soviet press has recently printed a number of dis-
patches from Afghanistan about the war, usually citing
acts of heroism by Soviet soldiers but occasionally con-
firming deaths as well. There have been no official fig-
ures of Soviet troop losses, although. some Western diplo-
mats suspect the figure h~ris@a iu re