Gorbachev, German Discuss Flier’s Case

The case of a young West German aviator imprisoned by the Soviets was raised at top-level talks with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, West German President Richard von Weizsaecker said Wednesday.

But Von Weizsaecker would disclose no details on the conversation about 19-year-old Mathias Rust, who penetrated Soviet airspace and landed in Moscow’s Red Square last May 28, on grounds that discussing the case publicly might hurt chances of resolving it.

The Soviets suspect Rust of having been aided by accomplices in his daring flight, which ended near the Kremlin wall, but his parents have said he acted alone. He has been held in the KGB security police’s Lefortovo Prison while his story is being investigated.

Hopes for Rust’s quick release were raised Wednesday when Valentin M. Falin, director of this country’s Novosti press agency, told West German journalists that the Rust case could be resolved within hours or days. Later, however, Falin added that it could take months to find a solution.

Shortly after Rust’s unorthodox arrival in Moscow, Falin suggested that it would not be long before the pilot would be seeing his family and friends in West Germany.

His parents flew here and had two visits with their son but apparently got no indication of whether he might be brought to trial, released or held indefinitely.

A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that those who are weighing the success of Von Weizsaecker’s trip by the effect it might have on the Rust case are “short-sighted.” Von Weizsaecker bluntly refused to comment on speculation that the pilot might be released as a friendly gesture during his six-day trip, telling his interrogator, “I assume you do not expect me to answer that question.”

Both Soviet and West German officials have been trying to keep the Rust case from overshadowing the main objective of Von Weizsaecker’s trip--a sharp improvement in political and economic relations between Moscow and Bonn.

“This is not an easy task,” the West German president said at a news conference.

He said his talks with Gorbachev on Tuesday were conducted “honestly, openly” and led to a broad agreement that disarmament in all fields is possible and urgently needed.

But the Soviet Union has openly criticized West Germany for trying to retain 72 Pershing 1A missiles with U.S.-controlled nuclear warheads even if there is an agreement to remove Soviet and U.S. medium-range missiles from Europe.

Von Weizsaecker, whose post is primarily ceremonial, said he invited both Gorbachev and Soviet President Andrei A. Gromyko to visit West Germany. No dates were set, he added.

He was the first West German president to visit Moscow in more than 12 years, and both sides said they wanted to use the occasion to chart a new, long-term course of better relations.

A year ago, ties were strained when West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was quoted by Newsweek magazine as comparing Gorbachev’s publicity tactics with the propaganda activities of Nazi Joseph Goebbels.

Asked whether the remark was still interfering with good relations between the two countries, Von Weizsaecker insisted that there was not a single reference to it, either directly or indirectly, during his meetings here.

But he noted that the full text of his dinner speech Monday night was not printed in Pravda, the Communist Party daily newspaper, although all of Gromyko’s speech was printed.

Von Weizsaecker planned later this week to visit Novosibirsk, where he hoped to meet with some of the 2 million ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union.

West German human rights groups claim that 60,000 want to emigrate, but Moscow says only 5,000 applications to leave the country are pending.