. I ~... Is - -                            
     Sov'iets` Announce                         
     Mol r                                      90RAO -01OUt
     ;                                          
     ygpj #78                                   
                                                

     Approved Fqpf~bLq~kse2000/08/08 C          
                                                

     Reuter                                     reaching unilateral
                                                troop cuts in
                                                

     MOSCOW, March .7-The                       Europe and Asia.
     Soviet                                     
                                                

     saidtoday it is.withdrawing                      Western experts saw
                                                the move as
                                                

     75 percent of its                          a concession to China,
     troops from Mon-                           which has
                                                

     gohayJn-an, ~ap.pale~n,                      long urged the withdrawal
     ~,!,~poncession,                           of all
     ,,to                                       
                                                

     ,                                          Moscow's forces from
     ,                                          Mongolia, a
     Chi fia oa &`bWof                          
     ay s , inet6                               
                                                

     Soviet summit.                             sparsely populated
                                                area as big as
                                                

     Foreign,- * Ministry,-                      the whole of Western
     spokesman                                  Europe sand-
                                                

     Gennadi Gerasimov                          wiched between the
     said the cut                               two
                                                communist
                                                

     was ihaddition,to                          ,
     an announcement                            giants.
     "                                          
     '                                          
     '                                          
                                                

     by'Wngolialhi~w6                           The troops were sent
     ifiat                                      to Mon-
     itwoW                                      
     d                                          
     -                                          
     J                                          
     '                                          
                                                

     r                                          
     u                                          
     its                                        lia at the request
     ed ce arme I                               of its Soviet-
     d fdic6g by                                9
     13 000                                     
                                                

     and trim its,militaryA                     backed government
     budget by 11                               in 1966 at a
                                                

     percent.             golia, although recenttime when once-close
     141n, agreem.ent WithWestern es-           Sino-Soviet
     the M6ngo-                                 
                                                

     lian government we   timates pat the figurerelations had been
     are bringing         at about              soured by ideo-
                                                

     back to the-motherland50,000, grouped into  logical and foreign
     three-quar-          four divisions.       policy disputes.
                                                

     ters; Qt8oviet troopsSoviet President MikhailAmid signs of an improvement
     based there,"        Gorba-                in
                          '                     
                                                

     GerAim'ov`said~'at   chev promised ffi     these ties, the Soviet
     a news confer-       A speech to the       Union an-
                                                

     ence. "All 'airborne United Nations in Decembernounced in 1987 that
     detachments '        to                    it was pulling
                                                

     will be withdrawn    bring home a "major   out some of the troops.
     and disbanded."      part" of Soviet       Western
                                                

     Gerasimov did not    troops from Mo iblia, experts said 8,000
     detail the total     without giv-          to 11,000 sol-
                                                

     number of Soviet soldiersing more details, as  diers were withdrawn,
     in Mon-              part of. far-         
                                                
     
     Approved For Release 2000108108: CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0600840001-3