Soviet bloc reported busy bypassing R&D barriers

Soviet-bloc countries have stepped up efforts to breach Western embargoes on the sale of advanced technology with military potential, according to a West German intelligence report.

The report said the success of East-bloc states in sidestepping the embargoes brings them huge savings on research and development. They run a vast operation to bypass the regulations of the Paris-based Coordinating Committee for East-West Trade Policy, under which Western nations and Japan have drawn up a list of materials barred for sale to communist states. Soviet-bloc efforts to outwit the committee are aimed at obtaining military equipment, nuclear technology, and other strategically important goods from the West, the report added.