MOSCOW SCOLDS UNITED STATES OVER LEAKED DOCUMENTS.

In an action that appeared to be related to news reports published last week by the Washington Times, the Russian Foreign Ministry called in U.S. ambassador Thomas Pickering March 29 to complain about what Moscow said were "provocative leaks" to the mass media that had violated the principle of diplomatic confidentiality. "It was emphasized [to Pickering] that normal interstate contacts could not take place without observation of this principle," a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. (Reuter, March 29) The March 27 Washington Times report was based on a classified U.S. State Department memo describing confidential conversations between the Russian and U.S. presidents during the March 13 Sharm El-Sheikh summit in Egypt. Another document made public dealt with the U.S. negotiating position on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty talks in Geneva. Clinton administration officials have denied the newspaper’s intimation that a political quid pro quo had been reached in Egypt, and the White House has asked the Justice Department to investigate the leaks of the classified documents.

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