Gorbachev Cold, Flu Delay Trip: Kremlin

Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev still plans to visit Czechoslovakia this week despite an illness that forced postponement of the trip for a few days, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

Gennady Gerasimov, speaking to reporters at a news briefing, alternately described Gorbachev’s ailment as a cold and the flu.

Gorbachev had been scheduled to leave Monday for a three-day trip to Czechoslovakia, but Gerasimov said the trip was delayed because of “a slight illness, a slight flu.

“The postponement was unexpected. This was an unexpected cold,” Gerasimov said. His remarks were the first comment by a Soviet official on the 56-year-old Gorbachev’s illness.

Gerasimov refused to comment on reports in the West German newspaper Bild, which said Gorbachev’s visit was delayed because Czechoslovak authorities were furious about what Bild said was Gorbachev’s intention to visit former Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek.

Dubcek is said to live in retirement in Bratislava, a city Gorbachev planned to visit after spending two days in Prague. Dubcek was the Czechoslovak leader during the “Prague spring” liberalization campaign that ended when Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces entered the country in August, 1968.

“Bratislava was envisioned in the trip, but it depends on the number of days of the visit,” Gerasimov said. “If the visit is as many days as originally planned, then there would be a visit to Bratislava.”