U.S., Russia End Dispute Over Embassy

Ending a decade-long wrangle over the bugged U.S. Embassy building in Moscow, the United States and Russia have agreed on a complex land swap that clears the way for construction of a new chancery, the Bush Administration announced Friday.

This time, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, only U.S. workers will be employed on the job.

In 1982, U.S. inspectors discovered that Soviet builders had honeycombed the walls of the new embassy with sophisticated listening devices.

In 1985, with the eight-story, red-brick building about 65% complete, construction was halted and has never been resumed.

President Bush and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin signed a memorandum Wednesday in which the U.S. government agreed to drop about $30 million in damage claims originally filed against the now-defunct Soviet government in exchange for additional land and favorable lease terms.

Under the terms of the agreement, the United States will keep both the 10-acre compound off Tchaikovsky Street where the bugged embassy stands, about a mile from the Kremlin, and the older, fire-damaged embassy building about 500 yards to the east. In addition, the U.S. government will get about an acre to connect the two compounds.

Boucher said U.S. workers will build a third embassy building somewhere on the U.S.-controlled land. The bugged building will be completed and used for such unclassified activities as libraries and cultural displays.

In exchange, Bush agreed to do all he could to eliminate restrictions on Russian use of an embassy that was built by the Soviets on Mt. Alto, north of Georgetown in northwest Washington. Although the building was completed years ago, Moscow’s diplomats have been prohibited by law from occupying it until U.S. diplomats move into the new building in Moscow.

Bush promised to use his “best effort” to persuade Congress to repeal that statute so the Russians could move in at once. In addition, Boucher said, the United States will give the Russians about one-third of an acre of land to create a corridor between the Mt. Alto embassy and a nearby apartment building the Russians own.

The agreement saves the new embassy in Moscow, often called a “red elephant” for its brick exterior, from the wrecker’s ball.