Word: komplektov
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What happens, though, if the forces that have combined to steer Gorbachev toward conservatism at home conspire to revive old thinking abroad? Washington may soon know. Barring a last-minute change, Gorbachev's fourth ambassador to the U.S. in six years will be Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Komplektov, 59, a fluent English speaker and classic old-school hard-liner. A Carter Administration aide who negotiated a fair amount of SALT II with Komplektov describes him as "having spent many years developing a reputation for calculated nastiness. He was charming enough when it suited his purposes, but across the table...
...Cuba policy will change until Washington's does. Castro's disdain for perestroika is well known, but the Soviet subsidy of Cuba continues unabated at between $3 billion and $6 billion annually, depending on who is counting. "We have conservatives too," explains the Kremlin's Deputy Foreign Minister, Viktor Komplektov. "There is so much else to push that it is simply easier to avoid a fight with those who idolize Fidel." With Gorbachev thus constrained, the path to perestroika in Havana runs through Washington. "Talk to the Cubans," Gorbachev has told Bush. "Something can be worked out. Castro...
Seated under a portrait of Lenin in his Foreign Ministry office in Moscow last week, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Komplektov explained that initial response to Washington's strategy. "We never believed that Central America was the key to improved superpower relations," he said. "We did, however, believe that Central America is especially important because conservatives consider the region as a litmus test of a President's toughness." This led Moscow to misinterpret Bush's opening. "Who was Bush but Reagan's man?" says Yuri Pavlov, the Soviet's top Latin America policy assistant. "That's how we incorrectly looked...
Then why did the Soviets play along? Their own interests demanded a different sort of linkage, but cooperation was the key to their goals as well. "As we have said," Komplektov explained, "we want to deny you the image of us as your enemy. Our desire to become respected by the international community is central to our efforts at home, because it will help us integrate into the world economy." From this perspective, Soviet-American cooperation anywhere serves Moscow's interests. Moreover, the Soviets genuinely wanted to reduce their overextended position in Central America, and Esquipulas, because it had regional...
...quickly became clear that both Washington and Moscow were fortunate to have Pavlov as the Soviet interlocutor. At the second session on the first day of meetings, the Soviet delegation was joined by Komplektov, the Deputy Foreign Minister. Komplektov was well known to veteran American diplomats as a hard-line old thinker. With Aronson, he lived up to his reputation. At lunch between sessions, Komplektov told bad Russian jokes about affairs with the actress Gina Lollobrigida. Across the table, he rehashed old Soviet positions on Central America and lectured Aronson about the sensibilities of small Latin nations condemned by geography...