Word: andropov
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Word began to circulate in Moscow and Eastern Europe that the Soviet leader was suffering from kidney disease. Following the cancellation of his Bulgarian visit, East European officials began to say that Andropov was undergoing kidney dialysis. One theory making the rounds last week was that he had undergone surgery. According to some rumors, Andropov's son Igor left Helsinki, where he was a member of a Soviet diplomatic delegation, to be at his father's side...
Whatever the state of Andropov's health may be, some Western experts are now starting to draw a far deeper conclusion about the state of affairs in the Soviet Union. In the year since he assumed power, Andropov has failed to inject the country with a new and forceful sense of direction. Instead, the Soviet Union has fallen back into the same kind of drift and indecision that characterized Brezhnev's waning years...
...Andropov's continuing absence means a power vacuum at the top of the Soviet pyramid, and the result appears to be paralysis and attendant political jockeying. That insecurity was vividly illustrated at a diplomatic reception in the Kremlin's gothic Hall of St. George following last week's anniversary parade. Politburo members at the fete shunned their foreign guests and instead conferred among themselves behind banquet tables. As a U.S. State Department official put it in Washington, "It's like a court without a king. Who makes decisions...
Administration officials are perplexed by that question. Under Andropov's evanescent leadership, Soviet policy toward the U.S. has zigzagged widely in recent months. During the spring and summer, Moscow made several gestures toward Washington. It granted exit visas to seven Soviet Pentecostalists who had camped for five years in the basement of the U.S. embassy and allowed U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth Dam to discuss American arms-control proposals on Soviet television. Washington responded with an offer to resume talks on cultural and consular exchanges, and Secretary of State George Shultz began considering a trip to Moscow...
Moscow's muddled handling of the event illustrated the lack of sharp command at the top. Andropov was said to be on vacation at the time. But as the Soviet military covered its blunder by charging that the U.S. had attempted aerial espionage, the Kremlin suffered heavy damage to its international standing...