Director of Soviet Academy of Science Worried by Richardson ‘note of Threat’

Georgi Arbatov, director of the Institute of the U.S.A. of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, said last night he was “worried by the note of threat” in the speech earlier in the day by United States Under-Secretary of State Elliot L. Richardson, warning that the United States would have to “take notice and react” to Russia’s “stirring up a wider conflict” in the Middle East. Mr. Arbatov said Mr. Richardson’s remarks constituted “an oversimplification of the problem” that “can lead only to escalation of tensions.” Mr. Arbatov spoke on Channel 13’s “News front” program. Neither he nor Mikhail D. Millionshchikov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic and Vice President of the Academy of Sciences, and Nikolai N. Inozemtsev, director of the Institute of World Economics and International Relations and former deputy editor of Pravda, who were also part of the panel, confirmed or denied the presence of Soviet pilots in Egypt, nor were they asked to. Mr. Arbatov commented that “The root of the problem is the aggression of Israel.” Panel participant, Prof. Jerome Wiesner, Provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, countered that the original aggression was the Arabs’ “refusal” to accept Israel. Both Mr. Arbatov and Mr. Millionshchikov agreed that the Soviet Union was run by “responsible people” who were not swayed by military spokesmen in formulating policy. When Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith, Harvard economist and former Ambassador to India, asked Mr. Arbatov if the Soviets would make concessions in the Mideast if the U.S. did so first, the Russian replied, “Of course. I’m sure of it.” Mr. Arbatov and Mr. Million shchikov were part of the Soviet delegation during the day’s Second National Convocation on the Challenge of Building Peace, sponsored by the educational Fund for Peace.