Not Even an Ironic Smile

By Hunter R. Clark

As the Soviets dig in, Mitterrand chides them about Sakharov

The 140 guests had sat down at a huge U-shaped table in the Kremlin's frescoed Palace of Facets for the official Soviet banquet in honor of French President Francois Mitterrand. No sooner had the caviar appeared than the traditional toasts began. Soviet Leader Konstantin Chernenko, who had been enjoying hearty laughs with Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, remained seated as he pulled out his prepared text. He began predictably enough by saluting the two countries' longstanding friendship, but then moved into a calibrated criticism of France for supporting NATO's deployment of new U.S. nuclear missiles in Western Europe. The Soviet leader omitted from his spoken remarks a passage that was contained in the prepared translation distributed to guests and later read over Soviet TV. "Those who try to give us advice on matters of human rights do nothing but provoke an ironic smile among us," it read. "We will not permit anyone to interfere in our affairs."

As applause followed the dutiful clinking of vodka glasses, Mitterrand rose to deliver his response. Alternately reading from notes and ad-libbing, the French President paid tribute to Soviet bravery during World War II ("I know the price you paid with spilled blood and 20 million dead"), but then blamed the Soviets' SS-20 missiles for upsetting the nuclear balance in Europe. When Mitterrand cited the 1975 Helsinki accords, which included a pledge to respect human rights, the guests realized what was coming. "All constraint against liberty could cast doubt on those freely accepted principles," Mitterrand intoned. "That is why we sometimes speak to you of the cases of individuals, some of whom have attained a symbolic dimension. That is the way to understand the emotion that exists in Europe and many other places for what affects some citizens of your country . . . That is the case of Professor Sakharov."

At the mention of Andrei Sakharov's name in French, Chernenko's hand went up to his ear and he looked puzzled. Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, who was seated next to French Transport Minister Charles Fiterman, one of four Communists in Mitterrand's Cabinet, uttered an audible sigh of impatience. When the Russian translation was read by the interpreter, a stir crossed the hall. But Chernenko did not even smile ironically, and 55 minutes later the banquet was over.

Mitterrand was the most important Western leader to venture to Moscow since NATO began to install new missiles in Europe last November. A principal purpose was to persuade the Soviets to renew the frozen East-West dialogue. The Kremlin used Mitterrand's visit to reject U.S. President Ronald Reagan's offer, made at a press conference one week earlier, to meet with Chernenko. At the end of Mitterrand's first full day, Kremlin Spokesman Leonid Zamyatin declared that "there has been no change in the American position that would make a summit meeting a real and concrete possibility."

Asked about Sakharov, the Nobel Peace prizewinner whose fate has been a mystery since he reportedly began a hunger strike May 2, Zamyatin grew red in the face. "You have 2 million unemployed!" he lectured American correspondents. "Academician Sakharov works. He has a wage of $1,125 a month. He lives well, he eats well, and he is all right in all respects."

Support for that notion seemed to come from photos of Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner that appeared in the West German tabloid Bild Zeitung on the eve of Mitterrand's visit. The newspaper explained that the pictures had been provided by Victor Louis, an English-speaking Soviet journalist who is widely believed to have KGB connections. One photo purports to show Sakharov strolling through a park in Gorky, the city 250 miles east of Moscow to which he has been exiled, on June 15. "Photos don't prove anything," Sakharov's stepdaughter Tatyana Yankelevich declared after she saw the picture in Paris. It was impossible to determine whether the photo was authentic. There are reports that Sakharov has been put under the care of a Soviet doctor who specializes in "artificial nutrition." The treatment is said to involve a technique that is used with patients who cannot swallow because they have throat cancer. Regardless of his health, Sakharov is an increasingly troublesome issue for the Soviets. Summed up his stepson Alexei Semyonov in Washington last week: "Sakharov is dangerous because his inward development as a person has led him to a state of freedom and courage."

Mitterrand's working session with Chernenko was stiff and formal: the leaders each read from prepared drafts, but there was no give-and-take. Only just before the banquet did the two withdraw for an hourlong private discussion. Mitterrand later described Chernenko, who appeared frail but not perceptibly ill, as an informed, nimble and animated interlocutor, with more autonomy than Mitterrand had previously thought.

Before leaving for Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad, the scene of a decisive Soviet victory against the Germans in 1942), Mitterrand said that the U.S.-Soviet dialogue currently appears to be so chilled that it is "closer to the pole than the equator." A senior Western diplomat expressed a similar view: "We are in for a long haul of this Soviet mood. The Soviets have dug themselves in and they are going to have difficulty digging themselves out." --By Hunter R. Clark. Reported by Erik Amfitheatrof/Moscow and Jordan Bonfante with Mitterrand

With reporting by Erik Amfitheatrof/Moscow and Jordan Bonfante with Mitterand