Foreign Relations of the United States, 1989–1992, Volume XXXI, START I, 1989–1991

222. Memorandum From Arnold Kanter of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft)¹

Washington, June 12, 1991

Brent,

The text of an oral message from Bessmertnykh to Baker on the President’s START letter² is attached. It confirms that we should expect a response from Gorbachev by the end of the week. It also implies that the Bartholomew Working Group should not go to Geneva until we have received the Gorbachev reply and the Soviets tell us that Obukov has received new instructions. (It is noteworthy—and probably unfortunate—that Obukov, rather than Moiseyev, seems to have been annointed as Reg Bartholomew’s counterpart for this round of START talks.)

On data denial, the Soviets already should have our proposal. We will be sending our own team of technical experts to meet with theirs as soon as the Soviets have had an opportunity to digest our approach.

Arnie Kanter³

Attachment

Paper Prepared in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs⁴

Moscow, undated

Pursuant to the agreement reached in Geneva we are making vigorous efforts on our part to intensify the process of completing the START Treaty. President Bush’s message has been reported to President Gorbachev, and intensive work is now under way to prepare our response. We expect that President Gorbachev’s message shall be ready by the end of the week. With this in mind, we shall be promptly notifying the Secretary of State as to when Mr. Obukhov shall be ready, on the basis of US and our own ideas, to have a discussion with R. Bartholomew and let me note that the Minister strongly supports the idea of Mr. Bartholomew’s coming to Geneva on an urgent basis.

As early as tomorrow we shall be sending a group of our experts to Geneva to discuss telemetry issues. In this connection, we expect to receive shortly relevant detailed US proposals.

1. Source: George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Presidential Records, National Security Council, Richard A. Davis Files, Subject Files, OA/ID CF01590–009 Arms Control PCC [2]. Secret. Copied to Gates, Gompert, and Hewett. A stamped notation indicates Scowcroft saw the memorandum.
2. See Document 218.
3. Printed from a copy bearing Kanter’s typed signature.
4. Secret. An unknown hand wrote at the top of the paper: “Oral message from A. Bessmertnykh to Secretary J. Baker.” A stamped notation indicates Scowcroft saw the paper. The Russian text of the paper is ibid.