AWOL Army Private Returns From USSR

FRANKFURT, West Germany--A U.S. Army private who defected to the Soviet Union seven months ago returned to the West yesterday and said he would surrender to American authorities.

Wade Roberts, 22, said he did not want to return to the Soviet Union but did not know if he would be going to the United States.

Roberts, who flew to Frankfurt from Moscow aboard an Aeroflot jetliner with his pregnant girlfriend, Petra Neumann, told Cable News Network in an interview that he did not expect to be charged with desertion.

"I have a piece of paper from the United States Embassy that they gave me stating that the only charge that they have against me is for being AWOL," or Away Without Official Leave, Roberts told CNN.

Roberts, who was assigned to a post in West Germany when he defected to the Soviet Embassy in East Berlin, told The Associated Press two weeks ago he was prepared to go home to face trial on charges of desertion.

Since then, he had been in contact with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow trying to arrange his return to the West.

Peter Arnett, CNN Moscow bureau chief, accompanied Roberts on the fight and said he was not met by any U.S. military officials at the Frankfurt airport.

Roberts was declared absent without leave from his unit in West Germany on March 2 and declared a deserter and dropped from the Army's rolls on April 2.

Ms. Neumann, 24, helped Roberts slip across the border into East Germany in the trunk of a rented car in April.

Roberts told CNN he decided to return and give himself up because of Ms. Neumann's pregnancy.

"I've got this child coming with Petra and I really don't feel like I should go around for the rest of my life having a charge ... from the United States hanging over my head," Roberts said. "It's not a very pleasant prospect to look forward to."

The official Soviet news agency Tass quoted Roberts as saying there were no political motives behind his decision.

"Our marriage is not registered, and she's pregnant," Tass quoted Roberts as saying. "Besides, her husband is in West Germany, and in Ashkrabad, there were difficulties with registering the birth of our child."

Roberts and Ms. Neumann were living in Ashkrabad, capital of the Central Asian republic of Turkmenia, before their return to Moscow several weeks ago.

Tass said the couple had been provided with a "well-appointed" apartment in Ashkarabad for which they paid 10 rubles, or about $15, monthly rent. It also said Roberts had been able to choose his job as a snake catcher and had expressed an interest in exotic animals when he arrived in the Soviet Union.

Roberts had told the AP in October that he was having difficulty learning Russian and was disenchanted with his job capturing venom from poisonous snakes for use as antivenom serum.

Tass said Ms. Neumann told its correspondent, who interviewed the couple in their hotel shortly before their departure, that conditions in Soviet hospitals are drastically different from those in German hospitals.

Roberts, of Riverside, Calif., said in the past that he defected because he disliked military service and had put in "two years, two months and 28 days" when he left the Army base in Giessen, West Germany.

However, he told CNN his defection was not because he disliked military life.

"No, that was not it. I had already been in for two years so I did know about the army," he said. "But when they told me that I could not be with Petra, and that I should hang out with the Americans more than the Germans and they took away my privileges and my liberty, it got pretty serious."

"I had to do something drastic because of their drastic actions."

"I don't think I'm leaving the U.S.S.R. forever," Tass quoted Roberts as saying. "I have plans to come back here again."

But Roberts told CNN that Tass incorrectly reported his statements.

"I don't want to go back to the Soviet Union any time in the future," Roberts said. "I want to sit back and see what happens before I ever return."