MOSCOW -- A Soviet newspaper criticized U.S. diplomats Monday for taking part in a weekend protest by Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate to Israel, calling it a well-rehearsed show.
The newspaper Moscow Pravda said Muscovites were angered by the 30-minute demonstration, held for 'false sufferers and their foreign advocates,' many of whom had diplomatic passports and work at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
'The participants in the show lined up and then, all at the same time, they unfurled streamers saying 'Let Us Go to Israel' in Russian and in English, which was perhaps a courtesy for those among the guests invited in advance who do not know Russian,' it said.
The newspaper said the demonstration resembled a 'well-rehearsed play.'
'The most curious thing was the simultaneous movements, which had been practiced to the point of automation and could otherwise only be seen at synchronized swimming competitions.'
The newspaper then personally attacked four U.S. diplomats: first secretaries Michael Einek and John Ordway, Second Secretary Earl Irving and Third Secretary Kathleen Kavalek for attending the protests with about 20 refuseniks.
'Together with foreign correspondents greedy for cheap sensations, some of them have mounted such a flurry of activity that one is prompted to think that the U.S. government has sent them to the U.S.S.R. to do nothing but stick up for refuseniks as, judging by how busy they are, they must have no time left for any other work,' the newspaper said.
It attacked Einek for holding the door to his apartment open to refuseniks, and launched a particularly bitter attack against Kavalek.
'Kathleen Kavalek has for several months now been having daily, if not hourly, meetings with refuseniks and gathering all kinds of false information to be blown out of all proportion and used as a hindrance to developing relations with the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.,' Moscow Pravda said.
Western diplomats who follow human rights issues in the Soviet Union often attend the protests, regularly held by Jewish refuseniks to call attention to their plight.
