SS20 spread ‘halted’

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 8

SS20 spread ‘halted’

NZPATutzing, West Ger- ' : many A leading Kremlin spokesman said yesterday that the Soviet Union had ceased deploying SS2O missiles in Europe months ago, despite claims. to the contrary' by American officials. Leonid Zamyatin, spokesman for the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, told a disarmament seminar that no SS2Os had been deployed on European soil since President Leonid Brezhnev’s visit to Bonn in November. The Soviet official added he has been authorised to deny officially claims by the American Secretary of Defence (Mr Caspar Weinberger) that the Soviets were

deploying a new, nucleartipped SS2O missile every five days. Last month a Left-wing member of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt’s Social Democratic Party, Ottmar Schreiner, quoted Soviet officials as also saying they had stopped deploying the multi-warhead missiles. Mr Schreiner, a member of Parliament, said he had been told of the moratorium on January 25 during a meeting in Moscow with Yadim Zagladin, a West German expert on the Central Committee staff.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman disputed Mr Schreiner’s remarks,, saying the United States had no indication the

Soviets had ceased SS2O de- i ployment. He told reporters on Feb- : ruary 4 that deployment was ' continuing “at an average i rate of one SS-missile per j week.” i The controversial SS2O, i which can deliver nuclear j warheads from Soviet terri- j tory in Europe to targets as far away as Greenland, lies • at the heart of the disarma- i ment debate in Europe. ' For several years, govern- i ments of the United States, I West Germany, and other \ Western nations have ■ claimed the missiles have ; upset the balance of forces in : - Europe in favour of the Soviets. I