Russia Probing Embassy Attack as Terrorist Act

Russian police on Thursday deemed a grenade attack against the U.S. Embassy an act of terrorism and stepped up security during a diplomatic fence-mending visit by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

Kremlin outrage over NATO air strikes against Serb rebels in Bosnia-Herzegovina had put serious strain on U.S.-Russian relations, and the current atmosphere of acrimony has been linked by some politicians and observers to Wednesday’s rocket-propelled grenade blast at the embassy.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which no one was injured, but the Moscow district prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation into what it was classifying as a terrorist act.

“There are people in Russia who might have carried out such an action in response to continued bomb attacks on the Bosnian Serbs to demonstrate to the United States their readiness for the most resolute steps,” Stanislav Terekhov, the head of Russia’s Union of Officers, told Interfax, a Russian news agency.

Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev added heat to the dispute by claiming in an interview with Interfax that the bombing runs by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had killed 800 and wounded more than 2,000 civilians--figures far larger than any confirmed in the West.

In an unexpected show of moderation, however, vacationing President Boris N. Yeltsin vetoed laws passed by the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, that would have required Russia to unilaterally breach U.N. sanctions against the Serbs. Yeltsin’s press service said the president nixed the measures because they contained “contradictions to international law.”

*

Talbott, the U.S. government’s top Russia expert, flew in for a whirlwind round of discussions with senior Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev. But few details of their three-hour meeting were disclosed.

The envoy declined to say whether he believed that the round fired at the embassy a day earlier was connected with recent tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Kozyrev met earlier in the day with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and heard criticism of Russia’s plan to sell nuclear power technology to Iran. Israel has echoed U.S. concerns that the $1-billion deal could help the rogue Islamic country develop nuclear weapons.

Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin told Rabin the reactors sale was “purely peaceful” and would in no way threaten Israeli security, Interfax reported.

Rabin acknowledged to journalists that he had been unable to sway Russian officials from their determination to go through with the sale.