VICTORY IN EUROPE : Press Pass Flap Reflects U.S.-Russian Rift

Russian security forces turned away American journalists from Victory Day events attended by President Clinton on Tuesday after accusing White House aides of giving them forged press passes.

Plainclothes agents and uniformed militia also roughed up some reporters and at least one White House staffer at a World War II veterans parade in Red Square.

The incidents, including one involving a senior member of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s security team, reflected the growing distrust among officials of the United States and Russia as the post-Cold War relationship has encountered a new chill.

Two hours before Clinton was to speak at the ceremonial opening of the new Poklonnaya Hill memorial, marking 50 years since the Allied victory in World War II, agents of Russia’s Presidential Security Service confronted White House escorts with passes collected from reporters traveling with Clinton.

The passes were clearly different from those issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

All credentials were prepared by the Russian government, and those intended for the U.S. media were given to the White House delegation for distribution.

The White House pool coordinator conceded that some of the passes handed out for events might have been fakes.

“We had to get them from wherever we could,” said Ann Edwards, noting that the White House staff had called around to other embassies in Moscow for spare credentials.

White House Assistant Press Secretary Jeremy Gaines was shoved backward by one Russian security agent, then grabbed in the groin by another after he and some journalists were told they lacked valid credentials.