Moscow Embassy in ‘Secure Mode’ for Shultz Visit, U.S. Reports

The U.S. Embassy here, although reportedly penetrated by Soviet agents and packed with Soviet listening devices, is now functioning “in a secure mode,” a U.S. spokesman said Friday.

Jaroslav Verner, the embassy’s information officer, gave reporters this assessment as preparations were being completed for next week’s scheduled visit by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Earlier in the week, two congressional investigators said after inspecting the embassy building that it was “grossly inadequate for security purposes,” except for a “few minimal areas.”

Security Restored

Verner insisted that U.S. diplomats have every reason to believe that their conversations will not now be monitored by Soviet listening devices. Security has been restored in the last few days, he said.

At one point, the embassy was sending its most secret dispatches by courier to Frankurt, West Germany, rather than risk possible compromise by going through normal communications channels.

“We believe the secretary (Shultz) can conduct his operations in a secure mode,” Verner said. “What needs to be secure is secure.”

He refused to comment on reports in Washington that Shultz would be using a trailer for sensitive discussions at the embassy to avoid being overheard. But he said Shultz will not need to return to his Air Force plane, which will be at Sheremetyevo Airport, for secure conversations with Washington.

Verner declined to say what measures have been taken to ensure that there will be no eavesdropping during Shultz’s three-day visit, which is to begin Monday.

Used ‘Bubble’

In the past, sensitive conversations were conducted in a high-security “bubble” in the embassy. But two former Marine guards at the embassy recently have been accused of allowing agents of the KGB, the Soviet secret police and espionage agency, into the embassy’s most sensitive areas in 1985 and 1986. This raised the possibility that listening devices have been placed throughout the building.

Shultz, who will be accompanied by more than 70 staff members, plans to have working lunches in the embassy Tuesday and Wednesday, a spokesman said. He is to address members of the embassy staff Tuesday evening and treat them to strawberries and ice cream that he has arranged to have delivered.

Shultz also plans to attend a traditional seder rite for Soviet and American Jews at Spaso House, the U.S. ambassador’s residence. The seder feast commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.