Sharansky Assails Those Who Hail Soviet Gestures but Scorn S. Africa’s

Western countries adopt a double standard when they cheer token political changes in the Soviet Union but reject similar moves in South Africa, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky said Friday.

Peering through the bars of a mock jail cell across the street from the Soviet Mission to the United Nations, Sharansky repeated charges that the release from prison of Josef Begun and other dissidents are merely “cosmetic gestures” by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Begun’s release “is not the end of our struggle; it is only the beginning,” he said as his wife, Avital, and his mother, Ida Milgrom, stood at his side during their second day in the cell.

“We cannot be silent. We cannot be deceived by one or another gesture of Mr. Gorbachev.”

Although Begun was released from Chistopol prison Friday, Sharansky said he now must begin again on “the process of applying for a visa and waiting for a visa,” which he started in 1971.

The plight of 400,000 Jews awaiting exit visas from the Soviet government will be resolved only when they are allowed to leave, said Sharansky, who changed his name from Anatoly Shcharansky after emigrating to Israel.

Sharansky said he supports a proposal by New York City Councilman Noach Dear calling for divestiture of American investments in the Soviet Union, which Dear said has “the worst human rights record in the world, worse than South Africa.”

He said that whenever South Africa makes a legal or social change to appease critics, Western public opinion responds with skepticism.

But when changes are announced by Gorbachev, “the same Western opinion says, ‘It’s a very good sign,’ ” he said.