Kremlin Space Weapons Worry Americans, Hart Tells Soviets

Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), taking a break from talks with Kremlin leaders, told the Soviets on Tuesday that Americans are concerned about all space weapons research, not just “Star Wars.”

In an interview on the main television news program after meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, Hart was asked what he thought of President Reagan’s “Star Wars” program, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Soviet Research Noted

“I think SDI should not be considered only from one point of view,” was the Russian translation of his reply. “It also concerns research undertaken in space by the Soviet side.

“Most Americans, including myself, are concerned about that,” he added. “I think both sides should approach space weapons research very carefully.”

Moscow has condemned the SDI program for a missile shield in space as an obstacle to arms control and, while the media have treated sensitive topics more openly recently, the subject of Soviet weapons in space is rarely broached.

Hart said his lengthy discussions with Gorbachev on Monday have given him a better understanding of the Soviet stand on arms.

He said the vast majority of the American public, like the Soviet public, wanted arms control and peace, adding that he personally sought serious and immediate reductions in nuclear weapons as well as better East-West relations in other fields.

Hart, who is considered a front-runner for the party’s nomination in the 1988 presidential race, has been given broad media coverage since his arrival in Moscow on Sunday night.

The official Tass news agency said that when Hart met Shevardnadze on Tuesday, both sides had expressed the wish to develop U.S.-Soviet contacts at various levels.

Hart plans to give a news conference today before visiting the estate of 19th-Century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, about 75 miles south of Moscow. He is to return home on Thursday.