Thornburgh to ‘Nudge’ Soviet Reforms : Soviet Union: The U.S. attorney general invites the Kremlin to ‘pick and choose’ from the American legal system in revamping its own.
MOSCOW — Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, making the first visit to the Soviet Union by an American attorney general in his official capacity, said Sunday that he views his five-day mission as an “opportunity to give a gentle nudge†to the Soviet leadership to maintain the “right direction†in restructuring their society.
Assessing Soviet perestroika (restructuring) as “a time of remarkable change and fluidity,†Thornburgh in an interview said its prospects for making permanent change hinge largely on achieving what Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev calls a law-based society.
Seeking to help the Soviets in their effort to adopt the rule of law, Thornburgh and a team of Justice Department officials are meeting with top legal officials here, offering them the opportunity to “pick and choose†from the U.S. system.
“This is our opportunity,†he said, noting that the Soviets “have reached out.
“We’re not going to be teaching or preaching--merely sharing thoughts on our system, their system, where we go from here,†he said of the visit, which is being made in response to an invitation from Soviet Justice Minister Veniamin Yakovlev.
“They have a great interest in many elements of our system--Article I of our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, subsequent amendments, except perhaps Prohibition, although they have some problems there,†Thornburgh said. “It’s a model they have to examine, because all of these provisions address problems with counterparts in the Soviet Union.â€
While he is the latest in a series of ranking U.S. officials to visit the Soviet Union, as attorney general, Thornburgh faces significant crime problems at home, chief among them carrying out the war on illicit drugs.
But Thornburgh contended that trying to help the Soviets “reform areas previously off-limits†to any change is just as important as his domestic mission. The changes “spell only good for the United States,†he said. “A root of a lot of our (U.S.-Soviet) tension has been our feeling about the oppressive nature of the Soviet system, its aggressive foreign policy in the past, resulting partly from a lack of accountability of its leadership to the people.â€
“The change of direction (by the Soviet government) has to be all positive for the United States, world peace and human rights,†Thornburgh said.
While carrying a paperback copy of the Federalist Papers in his briefcase and noting that the Soviet leadership “is obviously grappling with tensions in their republics,†Thornburgh said: “We don’t necessarily suggest they adopt our form of federal government. But there are certainly lessons to be learned.â€
He said that such U.S. legal guarantees as freedom of speech, due process of law and the rights of criminal defendants add up to “an appropriate menu from which wise Soviet leaders can borrow.â€
After meeting today with Yakovlev, Procurator General Alexander Y. Sukharev and Minister of Internal Affairs Vadim V. Bakatin, the Americans and their Soviet counterparts will turn to “nuts and bolts matters,†Thornburgh said.
These include battling narcotics trafficking, organized crime and environmental violations.
John C. Lawn, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, will join the group for the narcotics discussion.
In what some U.S. officials compare to the American surge of marijuana use during the Vietnam War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan seemed to have led to the increased use of heroin, hashish and marijuana here.
The Soviet Union is not a narcotics transshipping country or a source of illicit drugs consumed in the United States, but this should not prevent “us from extending a helping hand†to Soviet efforts to counter drugs, Thornburgh said. The DEA is already training some Soviet narcotics agents in the United States.
Thornburgh also will be meeting with Soviet immigration officials, prospective Soviet refugees to the United States and some Jewish-American group representatives over the ticklish issue of emigration under the new Soviet policy of allowing thousands to leave.
Thornburgh said he did not feel uneasy about meeting with top Soviet legal officials even though he oversees the FBI and its counterintelligence operations as the top U.S. law enforcement officer.
U. S. counterintelligence sources have said the Soviet Union has not lessened its espionage activities in the United States, and Felix S. Bloch, a veteran State Department official, is under intense scrutiny by the FBI, which suspects him of turning government material over to a Soviet agent.
The trip marks Thornburgh’s second official visit to the Soviet Union. In 1979, he came as governor of Pennsylvania in a delegation of governors.
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