Crackdown Surprised Moscow; Can’t Contact Beijing, Soviet Aide Says

The Kremlin’s main spokesman said Friday that the Moscow was surprised by China’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and that Soviet officials have been unable to reach Beijing.

“We can’t get through, either,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said.

He said Soviet officials were surprised at the means with which Chinese Communist leaders suppressed student protesters who had been rallying peacefully for weeks in support of broader reforms.

Asked if he was surprised by the brutality of the crackdown on the protests, Gerasimov said: “We hadn’t expected this.” He added that Moscow was “extremely dismayed” at Beijing’s actions.

The spokesman’s comments are the first official Soviet response since the new Soviet congress issued an extremely guarded statement Tuesday saying events in China were “an internal affair.”