U.S. Assails Soviets’ Troop Move to Baltics

In a sharp and now rare rebuke to the Soviet Union, the White House on Tuesday angrily denounced Moscow’s dispatch of military troops to the Baltic republics as “provocative and counterproductive.”

President Bush’s spokesman warned that the move in the Baltics and other restive republics “represents a serious step toward an escalation of tension within the U.S.S.R.” He called on Moscow to step back from its “attempts at intimidation.”

The Soviet Defense Ministry earlier characterized the deployment as an attempt to round up draft dodgers.

The White House response marked a pronounced shift in its public stance and suggested a step back from the steady path of improved U.S.-Soviet relations.

At immediate risk is a U.S.-Soviet summit conference scheduled for next month in Moscow.

In another development that roiled U.S.-Soviet relations, the Pentagon on Tuesday said that a Soviet freighter carrying military equipment toward the Jordanian port of Aqaba was intercepted in the Gulf of Aqaba and turned away by the American guided-missile cruiser Mississippi and the Spanish frigate Infanta Cristina.

The Soviet vessel Dmitri Fermanov was diverted last Friday after U.S. sailors reported that they had discovered 11 crates laden with rocket launchers, military communications gear and spare parts for weapons in the captain’s cabin. Some of the material was not listed on the ship’s cargo manifest, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said.

The Bush Administration stopped short of accusing the Soviet Union of attempting to break the U.N. embargo blocking the transfer of most goods, including military materiel, to Iraq. The route across southern Jordan from Aqaba to Iraq has become a common passage for goods being smuggled into Iraq. But Williams said that under the terms of the U.N. sanctions, the ship could not proceed to its destination when its contents were “not properly manifested.”

Kiril Kassatkin, senior press officer of Moscow’s embassy in Washington, declared Tuesday that the cargo was clearly documented and destined for delivery to the Jordanian armed forces.

“All the military equipment was on the manifest,” Kassatkin said. “The documents were excellent. We considered it an action against the free commerce of the Soviet fleet.”

The troop movements into the Baltic republics and Moldova, the Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia could add up to the last straw resulting in the delay of the U.S.-Soviet summit scheduled Feb. 11. Officials conceded that so many elements are threatening to disrupt its timing that postponement of the meeting looks increasingly likely.

Officials already had said that the Persian Gulf crisis may require so much of Bush’s attention that the summit date is in jeopardy. Also, negotiators have not yet pinned down all elements of the strategic arms reduction treaty that would be a centerpiece of the summit.

The issue of the troop movements was raised during a meeting Monday at the Soviet Foreign Ministry between Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and U.S. Ambassador Jack F. Matlock Jr., the White House said.

And in a precisely worded statement reviewed by Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday that the United States is “monitoring carefully” the military operations.

“The United States is especially concerned that the Soviet decision to send military units into the Baltic states, which we view as provocative and counterproductive, could damage the prospects for peaceful and constructive negotiations on the future of those states,” he said.

The United States maintains that the Soviet annexation of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia half a century ago was illegal. But Washington has refrained over the last year from actively pushing for their separation from the Soviet Union.

After several months of what was seen as a relaxation of tensions in the Baltics--or at least a period during which they were out of the spotlight--Fitzwater said that the situation there is growing more tense.

“It’s a reversal that’s very serious,” he said.

White House officials said they were uncertain about the reason for the crackdown.

The Soviet Defense Ministry said Monday that, out of necessity, it had sent squads of soldiers to dragoon youths into military ranks. It ordered paratroopers to track down and capture draft dodgers and deserters. Official sources said that inductions during the most recent round of nationwide conscription tumbled to as low as 10% of the draftable 18-year-olds in the republic of Georgia.

“It’s not inconceivable” that the shortfall in the draft is the sole reason for the troop movements, said one White House official. He and Fitzwater suggested that the move may have been tied to a desire by the central government to boost its intimidation of independence movements.

Some here also questioned whether the Kremlin was trying to take advantage of Bush’s preoccupation with the Persian Gulf crisis, hoping that the White House would either be too busy or too concerned about maintaining Soviet support for its gulf policy to criticize it.

“That hasn’t escaped speculation as a possible answer for ‘Why now?’ ” the official said.

Times staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this report.