In Russia, Gore Trades Old Problems for New

Vice President Al Gore escaped domestic campaign-financing controversies with a four-day visit to Russia only to be confronted Monday with trouble in one of Washington’s most important foreign relationships over such vital issues as nuclear safety, human rights and the Mir space station.

During the first day of talks on U.S.-Russian relations, Gore conveyed to Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin the United States’ deep concerns about Kremlin policies that have slowed business investments and raised questions about Russia’s commitment to democracy.

Dominant among the conflicts and frictions marring the twice-yearly meeting of the U.S.-Russian Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation chaired by Gore and Chernomyrdin was the Moscow leadership’s adoption last week of a bill that will hamper the work of foreign missionaries in Russia if it is signed into law by President Boris N. Yeltsin, as is widely expected.

“I tried very hard to explain why we Americans feel so strongly about this,” Gore said of the measure that has been criticized as a return to Soviet-style religious repression.

Gore said Chernomyrdin seemed sympathetic to U.S. concerns and that the legislation could still be amended. But he conceded that there are no indications that Yeltsin, whose office wrote the revised bill after vetoing an earlier version in July, is pondering a retreat.

“At no time did I hear anything which would make me feel comfortable in saying to you that there is a possibility that he’ll veto it,” Gore told reporters at the talks at a government retreat in this pine-forested village south of Moscow.

The troubled Mir space station was also prominent on the agenda, and another computer failure aboard the orbital complex early Monday underscored worries that Mir has become too risky to host U.S. astronauts.

The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is set to blast off Thursday for a linkup with Mir, but NASA has not yet decided whether to allow astronaut David Wolf to replace Michael Foale, who is about to complete a four-month stay at the Russian station.

“Any decision to move forward will be based solely on mission safety,” Gore said when asked whether he would support a continued U.S. presence on Mir. He compared the 11-year-old station to an obsolete computer.

Mir’s computer guidance system broke down just before Gore began his talks with Chernomyrdin--at least the fifth such occurrence, which causes the space station to lose solar alignment and risks its falling out of orbit.

NASA chief Daniel Goldin is among the 13 Cabinet-level members of Gore’s delegation here. Goldin’s talks with Russian Space Agency Director Yuri Koptiev and the latest breakdowns to afflict Mir are expected to influence today’s final decision on whether to let Wolf fulfill his mission.

Gore and Chernomyrdin also grappled over Russia’s assistance to Iran in developing a nuclear power plant and widening concerns that the Kremlin may have lost track of some weapons of mass destruction. But Gore insisted that the two sides made progress on nuclear controls.

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“We’ve agreed to share information and work closely to prevent Russian missile technology from reaching Iran or any other rogue state,” Gore told reporters.

While U.S. officials have accepted the Russian government’s claims that it is fully in control of nuclear weapons, a prominent scientist cast doubt on those assurances in a letter published Monday by the weekly Novaya Gazeta. Alexei V. Yablokov, Yeltsin’s former advisor on environmental affairs, asserted that recent accusations by former national security chief Alexander I. Lebed that dozens of suitcase-sized atomic bombs developed for the KGB are missing “were definitely not groundless.”

Gore indicated that he had been satisfied by Chernomyrdin’s assurances that the Kremlin maintains tight control over its arsenal. “I can tell you that there is no doubt whatsoever that Russia also takes this issue very seriously,” Gore said.

Gore and Chernomyrdin emphasized the need to reform Russia’s cumbersome tax system to encourage broader U.S. investment here, and they ordered an expert review of the stalled production-sharing agreement that is needed to finalize several major joint ventures in oil exploration and production.

The U.S. vice president, who has been dogged at home by accusations of fund-raising irregularities ahead of last year’s presidential election, will continue working on the laundry list of problems with Russia today, and is to visit the Volga River city of Samara on Wednesday to launch a project aimed at luring U.S. investment to Russia’s provinces.