SOVIETS TOOK IN AMERICAN DESERTERS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992                   TAG: 9202180133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short
SOVIETS TOOK IN AMERICAN DESERTERS
Two U.S. senators said Monday that the Russian government has acknowledged that American deserters and possibly POWs were brought to the Soviet Union after the Vietnam War, but there is no evidence any are still here.
Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Robert Smith, R-N.H., also said Russian officials agreed to open archives and share information on the fate of some of the 2,273 Americans missing in action in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
In a news conference at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Moscow, the leaders of the Senate's Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs said they were surprised by the openness of Russian officials.
Officials here had never before acknowledged the possibility that American POWs or MIAs from Vietnam were brought to the Soviet Union.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB