Russian Favors Total Disarmament, Removal of Foreign Military Bases

Russia is in favor of gradual steps towards balting nuclear proliferation, according to a Soviet official.

Leonid N. Kutakov, senior advisor to the Soviet mission to the United Nations, said last night in a speech in Boylston Auditorium that his government favors partial restrictive measures as preparation for the total scrapping of nuclear stockpiles.

Kutakov reiterated previous proposals of the Russian government to eliminate foreign military bases, to stop stationing troops, American or Soviet, in foreign countries, and to ban underground testing of nuclear weapons.

He cited disagreements between the United States and the Soviet Union over methods of inspection as "a major stumbling block" in past disarmament talks.

Formerly, Russia would agree only to three to five yearly inspections of Soviet testing sites, by a team of American and neutral scientists. The U.S. insisted on at least 10 to 12 inspections a year.

Now, Russia has decided that no inspection is necessary. "The Soviet Union believes in a certain amount of trust," Kutakov said. He added that due to the perfection of the systems of detecting underground tests, "it is hard to believe that after a disarmament agreement was reached, any government would try to conceal an underground test that could so conceivably be detected."

Kutakov did recognize the necessity of regular inspection once total disarmament is adopted by the world's major powers. He said, however, that this was a problem to be faced only when a worldwide agreement had been signed to destroy all nuclear stockpiles and all means of production of these weapons.

He cited the recent crash of an American B-52 bomber a Spain as an example of the danger that foreign military bases pose to countries that do not even possess nuclear weapons. The accident resulted in the scattering of radioactive particles from two bombs in part of the Spanish countryside.

Kutakov denied the reports that appeared yesterday in the American press, that Soviet troops were stationed in Mongolls. I'e said that these reports were "mere rumors, without any real basis."

He criticized U.S. policy in giving nuclear weapons to friends and allies. He said this only increases the danger of proliferation. He cited West Germany as on "especially dangerous risk--the U.S. does not realise West Germany's militarist potential as we do."