WORLD : Soviet General Angers Poland
The timetable for a Soviet troop withdrawal from Poland was thrown into question by a Red Army general who accused Warsaw in remarks published today of trying to bring dishonor on the Soviet army.
Gen. Viktor Dubinin, commander of the northern group of the Soviet armed forces, said there was no question of Moscow’s pulling its 50,000 troops out of Poland before completing the withdrawal of a much larger force from Germany.
His outspoken comments in a Soviet army newspaper, reprinted by the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, were attacked by Polish officials as improper.
Warsaw wants Moscow to withdraw its troops by the end of the year and demands that the operation must be at least under way before the transfer of 380,000 Soviet troops from former East Germany can start. But three rounds of delicate negotiations have failed to produce agreement on a timetable.
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