Soviets Formally Charge Daniloff : Reject Reagan Plea to Release Correspondent

MOSCOW —  Nicholas Daniloff, the first American correspondent jailed here since the Stalin era, was formally accused Sunday of spying, a crime that can carry the death penalty.

The announcement of the charges over Soviet television was the Kremlin’s blunt rejection of President Reagan’s personal assurance to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that Daniloff was not a U.S. spy and should be immediately set free.

In a telephone call to his Moscow office, Daniloff again denied that he ever worked for any U.S. intelligence organization, adding: “I know deep down I am telling the truth.” But he hinted broadly that the quickest way for him to get out of a KGB prison would be to link his his case with that of Gennady F. Zakharov, a Soviet employe of the United Nations who was arrested by the FBI on spying charges recently.

‘An Oblique Hint’

“I have received an oblique hint that it does not have to go to court,” Daniloff told Gretchen Trimble, wife of Daniloff’s successor as correspondent for the Washington-based magazine U.S. News & World Report.

Under Soviet law, Daniloff may be held in prison for six months while an investigation continues and for another three months if more time is needed to prepare a case.

After the investigation is concluded, Daniloff would be allowed to retain a lawyer before a trial.

During a 20-minute telephone talk with his successor, Jeff Trimble, Daniloff said:

“My case is moving into a more serious phase. Charges of espionage put me on a par with a case we know about.” Trimble said he took this as a reference to the arrest of Zakharov in New York City on Aug. 22.

Quickest Solution

“The quickest solution would be if the two cases would be looked at on an equal basis,” Daniloff told Trimble.

Earlier, Daniloff had said he did not want to be freed in a trade for an accused spy on grounds that he was innocent of wrongdoing.

His latest comment, however, came after his ninth day in prison, and Soviet authorities’ declared determination to press espionage charges despite a strong American outcry against Daniloff’s arrest.

Daniloff’s wife, Ruth, said in an NBC interview from here that her husband is under “very intense psychological pressure.” She praised Reagan for his effort to secure Daniloff’s release and said she is confident that the Administration is doing all it can on his behalf.

Daniloff told Trimble he was charged under Article 65 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. This article states that those committing espionage “shall be punished by deprivation of freedom for a term of seven to 15 years . . . or by death.”

Executions in the Soviet Union are carried out by firing squad.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Friday described the arrest as hostage-taking and ruled out a prisoner swap to get Daniloff out of Lefortovo prison.

Adverse Effect on Relations

In Washington, Michael H. Armacost, under secretary of state for political affairs, said Sunday that the espionage charges against Daniloff are bound to have an adverse effect on Soviet-American relations.

“We have for the past week been trying to communicate very forcefully to the Soviet Union the importance of releasing Nick Daniloff without preferring charges,” Armacost said on a television interview program.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov cautioned against diplomatic retaliation for Daniloff’s arrest.

“One retaliatory measure brings another retaliatory measure from the other side and this is a vicious circle that’s very unfortunate,” he said.

British, Soviet Expulsions

Gerasimov’s remarks recalled Britain’s expulsion of 31 Soviet citizens as spies a year ago and the Soviet Union’s tit-for-tat expulsions of 31 British diplomats, journalists and business executives from Moscow.

Appearing from here on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Gerasimov said that evidence against Daniloff consists of more than the “unfortunate envelope” he accepted from a Soviet acquaintance.

“If you think he is innocent, we can learn pretty soon, because there is going to be a trial,” Gerasimov said.

Daniloff, 52, has been the Moscow correspondent for U.S. News & World Report since 1981 and is one of the most senior, respected members of the American press corps in the Soviet Union.

He previously worked here for United Press International in the 1960’s and speaks fluent Russian. He is a descendant of an aristocratic Russian family, and he is writing a book about an ancestor who took part in the abortive 1825 Decembrist uprising against the czar and was later exiled for 30 years in Siberia.

Arrested in Lenin Hills

Daniloff was arrested Aug. 30 in Lenin Hills, a park near Moscow State University, where he had gone to meet a Soviet acquaintance he identified only as Misha, a school teacher from Frunze, the capital of Soviet Kirghizia.

He presented Misha with two books by American author Stephen King, he later told his wife, and Misha gave him a sealed package that supposedly contained newspaper clippings.

A few minutes later, Daniloff said, KGB agents seized him, and when they opened the package, it contained maps with a “secret” mark on them. Daniloff said that he had been “set up” by someone he had trusted who had been working with the KGB.

Ruth Daniloff said her husband has rejected a suggestion that the acquaintance was a longtime KGB agent. She said it seemed likely that the man had been coerced into trapping him.

“Both Nick and I have a very good nose for the KGB plant,” she said. If they are going to set you up, they will set you up. I mean, you can take all the precautions you want, and we all do.”