The World - News from Aug. 19, 1988

The Soviet Union’s recently appointed watchdog for the environment warned that attempts to tackle the country’s “ecological crisis” are being smothered in red tape. Fyodor Morgun, who heads the State Environmental Protection Committee, told a news conference in Moscow that solving such problems as coastal, air and river pollution to the drying out of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia is taking longer than it should. “We are sinking in instructions, directives and declarations, which are not helping the problem,” said Morgun, who was appointed in March and is considered an ally of Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. However, he said that a start had been made.