Soviets Fear Exodus of Military Experts : Arms: The specialists, out of work after the Cold War, might be lured to Third World countries.

Already concerned about the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, Moscow now fears that unemployed experts from its military industries might be lured to work in other countries, the new head of the Soviet intelligence agency said on Wednesday.

Yevgeny M. Primakov, director of the Soviet Central Intelligence Service, said that he has discussed the problem with U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials as part of efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Further cooperation is planned.

As the Soviet Union cuts its defense spending and converts part of its vast munitions industry to civilian production, thousands of weapons specialists are likely to lose their jobs, which have long been among the best paid and most prestigious here, and U.S. officials are concerned some might be hired by Third World countries.

“Remember how we started our space program after World War II with Werner von Braun and his German (scientists)?” Defense Secretary Dick Cheney commented earlier this month, expressing Washington’s fears that North Korea or Iraq might try to hire unemployed Soviet scientists and engineers for their nuclear weapons programs.

Describing the issue as “very important, very serious,” Primakov told a press conference on Wednesday: “We are concerned that nuclear physicists and other scientists and engineers working in high-technology fields might leave the Soviet Union and use their knowledge to develop weapons of mass destruction in other countries.

“Our service can discuss this matter with our counterparts,” he added, including it among the areas where the Soviet Central Intelligence Service wants to cooperate actively with the CIA and similar Western agencies.

But Primakov ruled out any tightening of the new Soviet regulations on emigration, which now allow anyone to leave the Soviet Union without restriction--except for those engaged in top-secret work who must wait five years.

“As to regulations to discourage our experts from leaving, we can’t do that,” he said. “It would mean closing our borders and reverting to the old tactics. We must find other ways to keep these critical technologies inside the country and not leaking out.”

Primakov, 61, who took over as head of the Central Intelligence Service when it was split off from the old KGB last month, stressed his desire to cooperate with Western agencies in a range of what he called “common interests,” including combatting terrorism, drug-trafficking, clandestine arms deals and regional crises that draw in the major powers.

He singled out as a priority area of cooperation the international efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them.

He said the Soviet intelligence service is now engaged in tracking, much as Western intelligence agencies do, the spread of advanced technology in 20 or so areas that are crucial for weapons development but also important for civilian production and scientific research. He proposed a cooperative effort.

“We would like to have good contacts with all intelligence services interested in working with us for the interests of all mankind and to prevent the world from sliding back to the Cold War,” Primakov said. “We have had several contacts with various services, and we seek to expand them.”

With the end of the Cold War, the orientation of Soviet intelligence efforts is changing, Primakov said, adding, “Our intelligence philosophy is that we have no permanent adversaries and no permanent allies.” In operational terms, the emphasis is on the systematic gathering of information and, increasingly, the analysis of it, he said.