Kremlin concern grows

Press, 11 February 1981, Page 8

Kremlin concern grows

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Moscow has accused Poland’s independent trade union, Solidarity, of waging a slander campaign against the ruling Communist Party and attacking Poland’s socialist system. The official Soviet news agency, Tass, did not mention the general strike that began in the southern province of Jelenia Gora yesterday. But the agency’s charges, in a dispatch from Warsaw,

of an increase in anti-social-ist activity by Solidarity officials, clearly mirrored Kremlin concern over the new wave of strikes. The Tass report, read out on television news, also appeared to imply criticism of the Warsaw Government’s recent decision' to allow Solidarity access to the mass media. Tass said: “Solidarity has stepped up its subversive political agitation among the population, -using leaflets

■ and its own publications.” The official Soviet media I have made no direct mention i of a decision by the Polish Government to let Solidarity ; produce a weekly newspaper • and present a weekly tele- ' vision programme. i In East Berlin, the Soviet - Ambassador (Mr Pybtr Abras simov) has said that Moscow could not remain indif- ; ferent to events in Poland i and that the country must i remain an “integrated part” of the Communist bloc.

In an interview with East Germany’s television, Mr Abrasimov, a member of 'the Soviet communist Party Central Committee, refused a direct answer When asked if Moscow would send troops into Poland as it did in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He. said only that more than 600,000 Soviet troops had been killed “liberating’ Poland in World War II and that the country’s big post-war industries had been built with Soviet help.