_WORLD

A plane in Red Square
_ and other bits of glasnost

MOSCOW — At the edge of Red Square, where the
Kremlin embankment meets the Moskvoretski bridge,
lies what Muscovites are laughingly calling ‘‘our new
airport’’.

It was here on May 28, that young Mathias Rust set
down his Cessna sports plane, and touched offa chain of
Political consequences far out of proportion to his own
bold but breathtakingly stupid adventure.

_ A Moscow cop walking his beat that Thursday even-
Ing, has given us his account of the scene:

“Twas on patrol, as usual, near St. Basil’s cathedral,”’
he told the press. ‘At about 7 p.m. I heard the sound of
an engine and then saw a plane with identification mark-
Ings that were unknown to me. It made two circles over
Red Square. I thought it was going to crash into the
historical museum. Why was it circling the square? It
looked like it wanted to land. But, you know, sometimes
in the evenings the square contains a lot of pedestrians.

“Then the plane landed behind St. Basil’s. A crowd
8athered. The pilot turned out to be a West German.

Meone asked him how long he had flown and he re-
Plied, ‘five hours’. A woman in the crowd immediately
8ave him a piece of bread...”

Rust’s greeting from ordinary Muscovites was friend-
ly, even laid-back. But Soviet authorities have under-
Standably taken a dimmer view of the matter. In the first
Place, laws were broken and lives endangered.

Even more to the point, Red Square is the very heart,
hot only of Moscow, but of the USSR. It is the spiritual,
Political and administrative centre of the country. And
despite being briefly intercepted as it crossed the fron-
tier, Rust’s Cessna was able to slip past several layers of

Viet air defence and put down with the kind of accur-
acy Pentagon planners dream of programming into their
Cruise missiles.

No wonder the Soviet Defence Minister and chief of
anti-aircraft planning forces went out on the first shock
Wave.

_ Some Soviet commentators have pointed to Rust’s

elaborate planning and preparations to suggest that he
did not act alone, that the object of his mission was to
Create an incident at a delicate juncture in the arms talks
and at a moment when the Warsaw Pact was holding a
‘Critical meeting in Berlin while the International Physi-
Clans for the Prevention of Nuclear War were meeting in

OSCcow.

This remains a theory in search of evidence, but cer-
manly not an outlandish one. Such things are not unheard
Or,

Whatever may have been Rust’s motives, and who-
€ver his accomplices, this episode has shown once again
that it is simply not the style of the Gorbachev leadership
to blame others for Soviet failures. Hence, the Polit-
—P

From Moscow

Fred Weir

bureau has concentrated its anger against those in the
military who bungled it, stressing that the errant flight
could have been brought to an end ‘‘without resorting to
combat means’’.

The likelihood now is that Rust will be tried, and then ~

deported. Valentin Falin, head of Novosti Press Agency,
has gone so far as to propose that the adventuresome
pilot be sent off with a big “‘thank you”’ for pointing out
the holes in Soviet air defence.

* * *

David McTaggart, founder and president of Green-
peace International, was in Moscow last week to assist in
the founding of yet another national branch of the
movement. Yes, really, Soviet Greenpeace has arrived,
set up under the auspices of the Soviet Peace Commit-
tee.

This is an astonishing measure of how fast, and how
completely things are changing. It seems like only
yesterday that Greenpeace activists were being arrested
while “‘raiding’’ a supposed whaling factory on the Si-
berian coast, and their small craft being chased out of
Soviet waters by naval vessels. Greenpeace has long
been at odds with the Soviet government over its whaling
policy, its enthusiastic commitment to nuclear energy
and its role in the arms race.

However, the Soviet peace offensive has made
Greenpeace’s former stance — ‘‘equal responsibility of
the superpowers’’ — rather untenable; Chernobyl has
raised the nuclear consciousness of everyone; and, last
month, the USSR disbanded its whaling fleet and con-
verted all the ships to fishing boats.

* * *

One evening last month Moscow witnessed a scene
which could only have occurred in the new atmosphere
of glasnost.

Some 400 people formed a protest demonstration, not
sanctioned by any officially recognized organization,
and marched peacefully up Gorky Street under police
escort. They were a strange sight with a collection of
banners bearing such slogans as: ‘““Down With the Ene-
mies of Perestroika’ and ‘‘Stop Work on Poklonnaya
Hill’.

It turns out the demonstrators were members of a new
group, the Pamyat (memory) Association. They concern

Mathias Rust’s Cessna on Red Square: landing with the
accuracy of a Cruise missile. . .

themselves with the protection of the Russian heritage,
particularly architectural monuments, from what they
see as the depredations of modernization. Hence their
interest in stopping construction of a giant — and hid-
cous — war monument on Moscow’s once-lovely Pok-
lonnaya Hill. (Work on the project has been halted).

The protestors demanded, and received, a meeting
with Moscow Communist Party head Boris Yeltsin. Ina
short, two-hour dialogue, they insisted that Pamyat be
accorded official recognition as a public organization.
Yeltsin promised further discussion.

Since then, the debate over the group and its demands
has exploded in the Soviet media. Pamyat has been given
space in the press to express its views, while critics have
responded. The main charge against this slightly offbeat
group is that they are a front for old-fashioned Russian
nationalism, and their views are tinged with Slavophil-
ism and anti-Semitism.

* ok *

A Saturday evening walk through Moscow’s Arbat

pedestrian mall reveals the extent to which young people

-have come out into the open in Soviet life, exuberant

interests and all.

On every corner kids are jamming, with guitars, saxo-
phones, violins, even balalaikas. An amateur group puts
on a demonstration of break dancing to taped music in
the middle of the street. There is a plague of portrait
artists. It’s a bit like Toronto’s Yonge Street without the
sleaze.

Soviet TV has discovered rock videos and concerts
with a vengeance. Even the official news agency TASS
— which is often far too serious for its own good — has
begun offering a monthly feature called “‘The TASS Top
Twenty’.

In case you’re wondering, Vladimir Kuzman is num-
ber one this month with ‘‘My Love’. Number two is ‘‘Just
A Minute’, by the Merry Boys Group, followed by the
ubiquitous Alla Pugachyova with ‘‘Happiness In Private
Life’’.

INTERNATIONALFOCUS Tom Morris

ee

Who hit
USS Stark?

Who hit the USS Stark with
a French-built exocet missile?

Was it the Iranian air force?
It was Iraq, right?

How is it then, that since
that Iraqui Mirage jet whacked
its missile into the Stark, the
United States has suddenly
begun issuing warnings about
“freedom of the seas’’, build-
ing up its navy in the Persian
Gulf, stickings its stars and
Stripes on Kuwaiti tankers,
threatening Iran against de-
ploying silkworm missiles,
arm-twisting its NATO allies in
Venice to join the fray — and
generally looking for a fight
With Iran. d

It was Iraq who hit the Stark, -
right?
Just asking. ..

Porsches and
belly buttons

Just when you may have ©

thought Irangate couldn't get
nuttier, it has* :
What could Colonel Oliver
North give us for an encore?
We know his code names
were Steel Hammer and “BG”
(Blood & Guts) and we know
he spent $2,000 in contra-arms
money for family groceries,
gas and snow tires for his car.
We know Reagan called him
a patriotic American and saw
this for ourselves as he stood
silent before a Senate commit-

tee along with his buddies who.

have since talked their heads

off. :
Ollie North is our modern-

day Gordon Liddy, although
we have yet to watch him hold

his hand over a candle flame
without flinching or chew the
heads off rats. He’s (so far) the

strong, silent type; the mom
and apple pie, boy-next-door
who comes across on televi-
sion as clean cut and honest.

Imagine, then, the blow to
America’s collective psyche to
discover North had his grubby
little fingers in the cookie jar

Major General Secord: Defend-
ing democracy with Porsches
and health spas.

along with the other crooks in
the Irangate charade.

It seems there’s a secret
$200,000 Swiss bank account
set up for North and his family
with contra funds. And, Are
you ready for this?. the ac-
count is code-named ‘‘Belly
button’’!

Seriously.

Steel Hammer and Belly
Button? Snow tires and
$200,000 secret accounts? Sul-
tans and document shredders?

And why not? ©

Another player, retired Air
Force Major General Richard
Secord’s contribution to free-
dom and democracy was to pil-
fer the contra fund of $300,000
with which he bought himself a
Piper airplane, a Porsche and a
trip to a health spa.

Then why the fuss over
some snow tires, the odd tank-
full of gas and a little retirement
fund?

Nobody says you have to be
poor to be patriotic in Reagan’s
America.

Just don’t get caught.

From Venice
to Toronto

Given that Canada, and like-
ly Toronto, will be the site of
next year’s economic summit,
Torontonians might well pon-
der the fact that last week in
Venice 9,000 machine-toting
police guarded the seven be-
loved ‘‘free world’’ leaders,
traffic was re-routed and heli-
copters buzzed the city. |

‘“*They could have held this
summit on an aircraft carrier
instead of coming to Venice
just because the first ladies had
to do the shopping... .’’, said a
local doctor. _

Now there’s a thought. Why
not an aircraft carrier . . . in the
Persian Gulf?

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 17, 1987 ¢ 9