Costs of Quake May Curtail Soviet Reforms

Kremlin officials ended their direct supervision of earthquake relief efforts in Armenia on Tuesday amid concerns that the enormous cost of rebuilding the devastated areas will slow Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s program for social and economic reforms.

The return to Moscow of the Politburo commission led by Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, which went to Armenia the day after the Dec. 7 earthquake, indicated that rescue operations are coming to an end and a long period of reconstruction is beginning.

Ryzhkov was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying reconstruction will cost much more than the $8.3 billion originally estimated.

He called the destruction “enormous” and indicated the disaster and relief effort dealt a severe blow to the national economy and Gorbachev’s campaign for change, Tass reported.

The cost or rebuilding “will affect the implementation of the social programs being carried out in the course of economic reform in the U.S.S.R.,” Ryzhkov said, according to Tass.

Ryzhkov, in a news conference broadcast on nationwide television Tuesday, criticized what he said was the “very low quality of construction” of multi-story apartment buildings destroyed by the earthquake that resulted in a death toll estimated at 55,000. More than 500,000 people were left homeless.

The official media said plans are being made to reconstruct cities such as Spitak and Leninakan, using methods to limit the chances of a similar disaster in the future.

The cities will be rebuilt with stone houses of fewer stories as well as with more buildings made of standard concrete and reinforced concrete, Tass said.

Tass said that a group of architects, seismologists, geologists and other experts is working in Yerevan to develop plans for rebuilding the cities.