Afghanistan Messengers from Moscow

Two top Soviet officials visit Kabul to endorse a peace proposal

The trip was unannounced, perhaps to ensure that increasingly accurate mujahedin antiaircraft gunners would not be paying special attention to the skies around Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. But when Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Anatoli Dobrynin, the chief of the Central Committee's International Department and for 24 years Moscow's Ambassador to Washington, stepped off their plane at Kabul's international airport last week, it was obvious that the Soviet Union was sending a public -- and very interesting -- message. Shevardnadze and Dobrynin, the most senior Moscow officials to visit Afghanistan since Soviet troops invaded that country in 1979, had come to...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!