Soviet Envoy Thanks U.S. for Help

The new Soviet ambassador to the United States on Thursday thanked the Bush Administration, Congress and the American people for their emphatic support of the Soviet people during the failed coup against Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“The American people sympathized with what was happening,” Ambassador Victor G. Komplektov told a news conference at the Soviet Embassy. “We Soviets felt this.”

Komplektov said the resolve of the Soviet people to hold fast to freedoms gained during the Gorbachev era was the main reason the coup failed. But he said international condemnation of the coup, particularly in the United States, was an important factor in the coup’s demise.

“The condemnation by the international community, by the United States Administration, the Congress and the American people was so emphatic and unanimous that these, too, could not have had but a positive effect on the outcome of this whole affair,” Komplektov said.