Reagan Blames Soviet Abuses on System, Not ‘Any Individual’

President Reagan, who risked Soviet ire by pressing for human rights improvements in his summit with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, said today that rights abuses cannot be blamed “on any individual” because the problem stems from the entire Soviet system.

During a brief exchange with reporters at the U.S. Embassy in London, Reagan tried to clarify a comment he made earlier in the week that made it appear he was softening his stand on rights problems. At a Moscow news conference, Reagan said he believes that change is being slowed by the Soviet bureaucracy.

Asked what he meant by his “bureaucracy” comment, Reagan replied, “Maybe it was a bad choice of words.”

“I think it’s a defect in the entire system,” the President said. “It is the system. You can’t place the blame on any individual.”

Reagan crusaded for improved human rights in Moscow for much of his five-day stay, making a passionate speech to a group of dissidents and visiting a Moscow monastery.

But at a news conference Wednesday, after his last meeting with Gorbachev, Reagan appeared to soften slightly by saying he does not directly blame the Soviet leader for the problem.

“In any government, some of us do find ourselves bound in by bureaucracy,” Reagan said. “And then sometimes you have to stomp your foot and say unmistakably, ‘I want it done.’ And maybe you get through with it.”