Olympic Nyet

Washington rejects an attache

The U.S. decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics of 1980 practically ensured that the question of Soviet participation in this year's Los Angeles Games would be highly politicized. Sure enough, Soviet officials have sought to keep their American counterparts off balance by steadfastly refusing to guarantee that they will send a team to California, even as they went through the preliminaries required to do so.

Last week it was Washington's turn to throw a somewhat ungraceful feint that left all involved feigning outrage. On the very day he was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles, the State Department rejected the visa application of Oleg Yermishkin, Moscow's designated attache to the Summer Games. Yermishkin, who served as a first secretary at the Soviet embassy in Washington from 1973 to 1977, was later tabbed as having been an intelligence agent during that period. Washington read Moscow's attempt to place him for a six-month stay in Los Angeles as a clumsy provocation. "He's a spook, a rather bad spook," said one State Department official. Explained another: "If they had wanted to slip in ringers at the Games, this was not a good way to begin it." Officials said that the U.S. would gladly grant a visa to a legitimate substitute for Yermishkin.

Moscow promptly branded the visa denial "a violation of Olympic tradition."

Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, disputes a State Department claim that he had been informally advised in December that Yermishkin was an unacceptable choice. Ueberroth called the timing of the decision "deeply troubling." U.S. diplomats chose not to pursue the matter. Said one: "We're paid to take the beating."