In Report Milder Than Expected, U.S. Cites 8 Soviet Arms Violations

The Reagan Administration, in a report that appeared to be considerably milder than the senior official responsible for preparing it had predicted only one day earlier, accused the Soviet Union on Friday of one new confirmed violation of an arms control agreement and reiterated charges of seven others.

The congressionally mandated annual report, prepared by the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and sent to Capitol Hill by President Reagan, also accused Moscow of one new probable violation but said the evidence on one “potential violation” was too ambiguous for a conclusion to be reached. It cleared the Soviets of cheating on two other matters.

All seven allegations contained in a similar report last year were renewed, with two of them being upgraded from “probable” violations to certain ones.

“Soviet non-compliance is a serious matter,” Reagan said in his written message to Congress. “It calls into question important security benefits from arms control, and it could create new security risks. It undermines the confidence essential to an effective arms control process in the future.”

‘Sustained Crackdown’

The report, coming just six weeks before the scheduled resumption of arms control talks in Geneva, is almost certain to anger the Soviets, who are very sensitive to accusations that they fail to live up to treaty obligations. In another step that may chill the atmosphere in Geneva, the State Department issued a report accusing Moscow of “a major, sustained crackdown” on the Soviet Jewish community through a series of “arrests, beatings and planting of evidence.”

Nevertheless, the arms control report did not satisfy conservative elements on Capitol Hill.

A spokesman for Sen. Steven D. Symms (R-Ida.) said the report was “not good enough.” He said Symms has asked for information on 44 probable treaty violations, 31 more than were mentioned in the Administration report. And the senator “will be asking more questions,” he added.

In the only new “certain” violation contained in the report, the Administration accused the Soviets of conducting underground nuclear weapons tests in a way that permitted radioactive particles to escape into the atmosphere and spread beyond the Soviet borders in violation of the 22-year-old limited test ban treaty.

The report was issued one day after Kenneth L. Adelman, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, told a group of reporters that the Administration would accuse the Soviets of 15 to 20 violations and probable violations of various arms control agreements.

In a statement to reporters Friday, Adelman said, “Today’s report reaffirms our conclusions of a year ago and in some cases strengthens them. Six new issues are covered in today’s report. These include findings of one violation, one probable violation, one too ambiguous to call and two cases where no violations were found.”

(A senior Administration official later explained that the six new issues included an overall discussion of Soviet anti-ballistic missile programs that did not charge specific violations, but he said the available evidence suggests that the Soviets might be planning a more extensive missile defense system than allowed by the 1972 ABM treaty.)

Adelman, who said all matters raised in the report have been discussed with the Soviets, declined to answer questions and made no effort to reconcile the report with his gloomier description of it a day earlier.

“I am frequently asked why we try to negotiate new agreements with the Soviet Union if it is violating existing ones,” Adelman said. “We do this for several reasons: First, new arms control agreements, if soundly formulated and fully adhered to, can serve U.S. interests. . . . Second, entering new negotiations does not in any way condone or ignore past Soviet behavior, and third, continuing to negotiate can give us leverage and another way for trying to get the Soviets to abide by existing agreements.”

Ambiguous Evidence

In his written statement, Reagan said failure to adhere to arms control agreements could “damage the chances for establishing a more constructive U.S.-Soviet relationship.” He said Moscow “has thus far not provided satisfactory explanations nor undertaken corrective actions sufficient to alleviate our concerns.”

The new issues, in addition to the charged violation of the limited test ban treaty, included a “potential violation” of the SALT II ban on mobile ABM systems, although some evidence was described as ambiguous.

The report said it found insufficient evidence to determine whether there was a violation of a ban on concurrent testing of anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems, and it found that the Soviets did not violate SALT I bans on reusing dismantled intercontinental ballistic missile sites or reusing decommissioned submarines as ballistic missile carriers.

7 Earlier Violations

The report reiterated the seven violations charged last year, which include construction of a radar installation in Siberia of the type prohibited by the 1972 ABM treaty; coding of missile test telemetric signals as prohibited by the unratified SALT II; testing of two new types of ICBM instead of the one allowed by SALT II; probable violation of the SALT II prohibition of deployment of the SS-16 mobile missile; maintenance of an offensive biological warfare program in violation of a 1972 treaty banning germ weapons; likely violations of the threshold nuclear test ban treaty, and failure to notify the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of troop maneuvers as required by the 1975 Helsinki agreements.

The new report upgraded the radar installation and the two new ICBM issues from “probable” to “certain” violations.