An official Soviet news blackout shrouds the talks now in progress between Dr. Henry A. Kissinger and Leonid I. Brezhnev in a country retreat outside Moscow. But while there has been no official word regarding the broad range of topics under review by President Nixon’s national security advisor and the Soviet Communist Party leader, there are indications that the two diplomats are discussing the effect the USSR’s policy on Jewish emigration is having on the East-West Trade Act now pending in Congress.
As the talks went into their third day, Izvestia, the Soviet government’s official daily, assailed American circles opposed to expanded trade with the USSR until it eliminates its restrictions on Jewish emigration. While presenting a generally optimistic view about future prospects for U.S. USSR trade relations, Izvestia denounced the “military-industrial bloc, Zionist elements and the extreme right” for blocking detente.
According to some observers, the attack by the official Soviet government organ was an indication that the Soviet leadership is taking a hard line on the issue of East-West trade and hoping to convince the Nixon Administration to find a way of separating trade talks and the issue of most favored nation status from the issue of emigration.
Before Dr. Kissinger left for Moscow last Thursday, three national Jewish leaders met with him and gave him a list of names of current Jewish prisoners of conscience and documented evidence of harassment, intimidation and ostracism suffered by thousands of Jews seeking exit visas. After the meeting, the Jewish leaders reported that Dr. Kissinger was “sympathetic to our presentation” and were “encouraged by Dr. Kissinger’s response and by his assurance that the channel of communication between the White House and the Jewish community on this issue (Soviet Jewry) will remain open.”
The three Jewish leaders also said that Dr. Kissinger told them that the granting of the most favored nation status to the Soviet Union was an essential aspect of the United States policy of increasing trade and detente with the USSR.
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