European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 17, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 the stars and stripes sunday november 17, 1985 Summit preview soviets focusing on Reagan step up . Propaganda Versoi ready for Summit to american Swiss ind Sotto Flap Art Nyling in the wind it Versoi City Hal mar Genera. A chateau in Ibe Little Community is where the first round of Summit talks win begin. Many Flap decorate the town in preparation for melting the two Leaden. Moscow a As the superpower Summit cars the Soviel Union has accelerated criticism of the United states and accused president Reagan of leading a Campaign to belittle the importance of his meeting with soviet Leader Mikhail s. Gorbachev. Commentaries in inc official soviet Media on Friday presented gloomy forecasts for Success of the first meeting of the superpower leaders in six years and accused the United states of failure to respond to soviet proposals on arms control. In a radio address thursday Reagan said he and Gorbachev to meet tuesday and wednesday in Geneva should work to ban nuclear weapons but also stressed cultural and educational ties and the Elimina Tion of regional conflicts. The soviets insist that the Summit should focus on arms control and have claimed that . Efforts to introduce other issues such As human rights Are in tended to sidetrack the meeting. Ronald Reagan s address on the eve of his Depar Ture for Geneva. Has again underscored the White House s frantic Campaign to demote the Summit s significance said Vladimir Alexeev commentator for the government press Agency no Vosti. Quoting Reagan s Call for finding undiscovered avenues of cooperation Alexeev added Why waste time discovering unknown paths when the main Avenue is staring us in the face this certainly appears to be a last ditch attempt by the Reagan administration to steer the Summit away from arms limitation matters in the direction of secon Dary and peripheral  Sovie Skaya Rossiya an Organ of the communist party Central committee complained that the United states has so far failed to respond with anything but rhetoric to the .s.r. S  the newspaper said one cannot conclude. No matter How hard one might try that the american Side is prepared to go its half of the Road toward the .s.r. And make a tangible contribution toward Dis  in a front Page editorial the government newspaper Izvestia quoted tetters calling for Progress in Geneva. But it added a study of our mail leads one to the conclusion that the soviet people do not cherish any illusions about the achievement of an agreement in Geneva on the key issues of our Lime. The position of the United states is not aimed at this does not give  As part of soviet preparations for the Summit the communist party politburo met thursday to formalize the leadership s approach to the meeting and foreign minister Eduard a. Shevardnadze met w h is. Ambassador Arthur Hartman. But the Kremlin has yet to announce officially Gorbachev s departure on monday or say who will accompany him to the meeting with Reagan. Gorbachev said wednesday he was prepared for serious and productive work in Geneva and would not go to the meeting empty handed. His speech made Clear that the Kremlin wants to focus on arms control especially space weapons. But he avoided the strident anti american tone of the intensifying Media Campaign that apparently is aimed at casting the United states in a bad Light and at preparing the Way for blaming the United states if the Summit produces no Concrete Progress. The United states is trying to convince the Public by unrestrained self advertising that Washington wants reductions in nuclear armaments and thus to sell a shoddy commodity to the Gullible the official Tass news Agency charged. Alexander Malyshkin commentator for the govern ment press Agency linked Reagan s space based strategic defensive initiative dubbed Star wars to the chances of Success in Geneva. He said that if Reagan s position remains unchanged in Geneva this win kill the Hopes pegged on the upcoming Summit  soviets hard line on Afghanistan continues in Geneva Geneva a soviet officials briefing reporters in Advance of the sum Mit faced a barrage of questions saturday on Afghanistan but their answers Sig naked no change in the Kremlin s position on that Issue. Seven soviets fielded questions from journalists at a briefing called to discuss regional  most of the questions dealt with Afghanistan one of the so called regional conflicts that president Reagan and Soviel Leader Mikhail s. Gorbachev plan to discuss in the second Day of their talks on wednesday. They repeated the Kremlin s statements that soviet troops will be with drawn from Afghanistan when a Politi Cal settlement is reached with Guaran tees that outside interference will Stop. Asked if the soviet Union would sup port direct talks with the anti marxist guerrillas fighting the soviet backed afghan government Yevgeny Primakow would not answer directly. He said it would be up to the afghan regime of Babrak Karmal. The soviet Union has two Aims he said. Afghanistan should be a Neutral non aligned and Friendly state toward the soviet  his statement Drew laugh Ter from the Western press corps which dominated the questioning. Primakow said the soviets were not Happy to have their troops in Afghani Stan and that casualties have significantly increased recently because of new weaponry he said the guerrillas have received. The officials would not be pinned Down on How Many soviet troops arc in Afghanistan. Western intelligence estimates Are that 100,000 to 130,000 Are stationed there. The soviets said they Call the number a limited contingent to underscore what they say will be a temporary slay. The troops were sent in in december 1979. We Don t quote these figures said Albert Vaselov the soviet Moderator. The final summing up will be a political kind not a counting of  in general the officials said that Many regional issues especially the Middle East can be settled if the United states drops its opposition to soviet influence in the regions. They said joint consultations Between the superpowers could help reduce regional problems. Reagan proposed in a speech at the United nations that a three level process be pursued to Settle conflict in Angola Ethiopia Afghanistan Nicaragua and Cambodia. First direct talks Between the protagonists followed by .-soviet discussions on How to further those negotiations with economic assistance provided after conflicts arc resolved. The soviets repealed Calls that the pal Estine liberation organization be included in an International conference to Settle the Middle East conflict but said the so Viets were not prepared to normalize relations with Israel before a conference. Is Rael has said the soviet Union and the Plo must recognize it As a condition for an International conference. Poff finds 50% think Summit will help .-soviet ties new York a fifty percent of americans feel the Geneva Summit meeting next week will improve .-soviet relations and a third believe it will Lead loan arms control agreement according to a new York times lbs news poll published saturday. The poll also indicates that 75 percent believe presi Dent Reagan really wants an arms control agreement compared with 47 percent who think soviet Leader Mik Hail s. Gorbachev Doci. The poll of 1,659 adults was conducted by Telephone Between nov. 6-10. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage Points. Trie president and Gorbachev were seen As willing to make real concessions to get an agreement by 36 per cent to 21 percent respectively. Only 17 percent saw both men As prepared to Compromise. When asked what the United states should do if forced to choose Between developing a defensive system in space or giving it up and negotiating 53 percent said the United states should give up a space defense while 33 percent would forgo negotiations the times said. The Survey found widely different notions about what the space defense system is intended to do. Thirty per cent said it is meant to protect the entire is. Popula Tion 28 percent said it is designed to protect half the people and 15 percent said it is intended to protect less than 10 percent of the population. But even among the 58 percent who said they thought the system would be successful at destroying enemy missiles nearly half said they were willing to give it up if necessary to gel an arms agreement. Sixty five percent believe that nuclear weapons will be used somewhere in the world in the next 15 Yean but Only 29 percent think it will be used by the United slates or the Soviel Union. Fifty nine percent expect the first use by some other country. The respondents were almost equally divided on the question of whether inc Summit meeting was a Good place to raise the Issue of human rights violations by the soviet Union. Forty seven percent believe it is a bad time and 43 percent believe it is a Good time. Eighty one percent said they were convinced that such discussion would not make any difference in soviet policy. Meanwhile a congressional study released saturday said the soviet Union is willing to cripple ils own econ omy and those of its East european allies to assure it snot outpaced in the arms race. The present weak conditions of the economies throughout Eastern Europe show How the soviets will squeeze those economies into dismal conditions in order to finance the arms race rep. David obey d-wis., chairman of the joint economic committee said i releasing the panel s study. It is Clear the economies of the soviet bloc Are facing increasingly Bleak prospects. Continued diversion of re sources from civilian to Milita a purposes lessens the possibility for improvements in these troubled economies he said. 11 a c."? a race no Only would Benefit the United Stales in its efforts to be More competitive worldwide but would Al of he soviet bloc to Devot Moro resources toward building up the civilian economies obey added