MOSCOW : Russia Awaits Gore

Vice President Al Gore and a high-level American delegation including Defense Secretary William J. Perry will arrive in Moscow on Wednesday for the fourth round of talks on fostering U.S.-Russian cooperation. The Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, chaired by Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, was formed in April, 1993, to develop deeper economic, trade, scientific and technical ties between the two countries.

Gore is also scheduled to meet Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

The visit comes at a tense time in U.S.-Russian relations, on the heels of an angry Russian denunciation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s plan to expand into Eastern Europe. But Moscow insists it wants good relations with the West. “This is not a return to the Cold War and not a change of epochs,” Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev said.