SOVIET AIDE CUTS SHORT U.S. VISIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807270005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-
I WASHINGTON POST
ON PAGE.^
ARTICLE APPEARED
11 :March 1985
generation of ~S*iet leaders, rep-
as GorbacWv aad+&&W ammov.
~
Soviet Aide
Well info u.& officials said
the Shcherb Visit, which,includ-
ed talks with P dhnt Reagan dun,
Cuts +J Short lug asix-ce! stq in Washingum,,
had been going well and that dials,
r
was no question of y short a Visit td
U.S. Visit ? ? dispute visitte
to decision to'
the West Coaeot h days,
Amid House Robee$
Move Comes Amid Sims said Reagan was informed at 4
p.m. of the decision by the Soviet'
Unconfirmed Reports delegatioa to va hem.. Sims
Y'_ said the United Shaw did not have
Chernenko Is Dead an explanation for the decision and
that there has no official re-
port from' the lot to the U S
By Richard M. Weintraub
Waalrn ton Pat Foreign service
A member of the Soviet Politburo
abruptly cut short his visit to the
United States yesterday amid un-
confirmed reports that Soviet lead-
er Konstantin Chernenko had died.
Vladimir V. Shcherbitsky in-
formed the State Department late
yesterday afternoon that he and the
other 29 members of a high-ranking
Soviet delegation were ending their
visit to the United States to return
to Moscow as soon as possible.
Early this morning, Moscow Ra-
dio began. broadcasting funeral
dirges, which in the pm& has sig.
naled a death in the leadership.
Shcherbitsky is one of 11 mem-
bers of the ruling Politbucerand his
presence would be needed for a mar
jor vote or if a fellow member had
died. Chernenko clearly has been in
for several months, but a number of
other members of the ruling body
also are in their seventies and
eighties and in frail health,
If Chernenko is dead, he would be
the third Soviet leader to have died
within the past 28 months. Leonid
Brezhnev's 18-year hold on Soviet
power ended in November 1982.
His successor, Yuri Andropov, ruled
for only 15 months before he died in
February last year to be succeeded
by Chernenko.
Intense speculation on the sub-
ject of a new leader at the top of the
Kremlin hierarchy has focused on
whether power finally win. pass
from the old guard to a younger
Embassy in Mosco y absuf. Cher,.
ronko.
A spokesman for the U.S. mission
to international organisations based.
in Geneva said that
Buslh~ who is in the
make a speech toda
Presidents.
wins, city, tQ.
uncoatfirMe t . the Soviet
leader had the4
There also were rep ,in Wash-
ingtog that a member o the Soviet
tra dhig Party in San Fr ciseo had
9atlyr that Chem had died,.
S. officials f `With the
details of the visit refused awy com-
ment. "
The State'Department kited its
public announcements to the sud-
des. tequest of the Soviets to leave,
and The Associated Press reported
that one U.5.' official, asked what
he foviets; had said about t h. ? . do-
ed!--respedtdr "11 'were
ajgad, but told us Nothing."
Washington Post Corr
Dusko Doder and, Celestine
reported yesterday from Mostovs
that rumors about Chernen&E 's
health had been rife in the Soviet
capital throughout the weekend.
Soviet radio began to shift
programming to somber musjc.
about 4 a.th. today, and by 6 a.
funeral dirges were being played.
But there were no announce..
ments from the Kremlin.
Cherneako had missed a tradi-1
tional meeting at the Bolshoi The-
ater % marking International Wo.
men's Day Thursday night, but he
had failed to make a number of an,
ticipated appearances in recent,
months, , leading Soviet officials fi-
.rally to acknowledge that he was ill.
Dude, a4 BM reported that
there was saw- uawlly.. bsavy
weekend activity at the headquar-
ters of the KGB, the Soviet secret
polka but that otherwise it had the
ap es, of, a nerm$ Moscow
weekead. Tl ,r1 also was no unusu-
al' activity., atuu nct key - Moscow
buihdingte&Ar, Whm=id&
Polilbwq ? nteruber Vital VoFSt-
nikov, who has keen on a visit to
Y*ekvh'i, a]64~ interrupted his trip
attt deied4or Mosmw after an
official dicier hast. eight, Doder re-
ported. V'ofotnikov had been sched-
uled too retdm to Moscow today.
The Yagpelee news; agency Tan-
jug reported..Vorotnikox's depar-
ture as a norNally scheduled event,
but dipfonrstio sources in the-Soviet
capital saidhe bad cut short hiss vis-
it.
Ever since Chernepko's health
began to take' a turn fat the worse
late last summer thers.have been a
number of false reports that he had
died. For months Soviet officials
insisted tAet nothing; was wrong or
that. he., was net. s;erioosly ill, but
when he failed to appear for an elec-
tion speech for the parliament of
the Russian Federation on Feb., 22,
even the pretense that he was. not
seriously ill was dropped.
Chernenkef.72 when he took of-
fice; showed early signs of short-
ness of breath and other ailments,
according to foreign visitors who
met with him, and there were some
reports that he w s suffering from
emphysema.
White Ifioast officials said a
mouth 390, that the U.S. intelli-
gence commwaity .copse, to the
did have- emphysema but that he
was expected live another six
.months.
coldinod
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807270005-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807270005-6
The visiting Soviet dekregation,
the highest-ranking g oo Soviet,
leaders to coil to tlra United
States since 1973, left Waahinglon
on Friday after a full round of talks
with administratioe. olfkials and
members of Congress ate. contacts
with the U.S. press.
After a weekend in Texas, they
were scheduled: to spend three days
touring California before returning
to Moscow on Wednesday. On ar-
rival in San Francisco, however, the
group went immediately to the So-
viet Consulate and, acYSording to
.U.S. officials, told the State Depart-
ment they needed to leave imme-
diately.
Shcherbitsky and his colleagues
fWVyt~
U ,;MrWeling.on an ofYk f
however, and their
own Pka 11~d f4wn to Havana af-,.
ter t* group in ft United
40k to these officials,
The Soviet delegation now is
scheduled to leave San Francisco at
5 a.m. today for a flight to New
York and is to leave on the Soviet
aircraft at 3 p.m. today.
The Soviets have stayed in the
San Francisco consulate under tight
security since their arrival, U.S
officials said, alth th*r* was
some contaet both with ; the State
Department and with congressional
liaison staff. Shcherbityky and his
group officially, ape here as a visit-
mg parliamentary delegation,
guests of the U.S. Congress.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807270005-6