DIPLOMACY: Objects of Barter

Since the right-wing military junta of General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile three years ago, nothing but insults have been exchanged by Santiago and Moscow. So when Strongman Pinochet ostentatiously offered to give the Kremlin his country's top Communist prisoner in exchange for a jailed Russian writer last month, his proposal was widely dismissed as a futile gesture designed to mute critics of his oppressive regime. Last week the improbable bargain was consummated. In exchange for the release of Chilean Communist Party Chief Luis Corvalán, 60, the Kremlin freed Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, 33, who was serving a seven-year...

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