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So far, Gorbachev has received generally high marks from Soviets for his handling of the disaster. He is being praised in Moscow for his fast reaction in cutting short his American trip and returning to the Soviet Union, and in keeping what appears to be a tight grip on events as they unfold. "He sent a high-level team to the region immediately and kept them there," says a senior Western diplomat in Moscow. "They showed compassion and worked with the local people. The real test will be in how well they organize the long-term reconstruction." The disaster catapulted Prime Minister Ryzhkov, 59, into prominence as a strong and compassionate official. Every day Soviet television has shown him visiting stricken areas and talking with victims.
Compounding Gorbachev's problems is the bloody conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. In the days before and after the quake, tens of thousands of Armenians crossed the border into Soviet Armenia to escape violence, and many Azerbaijanis crossed the other way. Until Gorbachev rejected their claim to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenians regarded Moscow as their champion. Now, said Lynch, Gorbachev "has come to represent in Armenian eyes everything they deeply resent about Moscow."
This depth of feeling boiled over in Yerevan last week when 600 people demonstrated with slogans accusing Moscow of deporting Armenian children orphaned by the earthquake. Soviet spokesman Gerasimov denied the allegations and said six of the ringleaders of the protest, all from the Karabakh Committee, had been jailed. The Armenian distrust has become so explosive that the Soviet army positioned tanks at main intersections in Yerevan. Pravda blamed the Karabakh group for spreading a rumor that the disaster was the result of a nuclear explosion detonated by Moscow. Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya reported that a convoy carrying aid from Azerbaijan to the earthquake area had been attacked and turned back by gangs of Armenian youths.
Clearly, Gorbachev's daunting tasks at home have been complicated immeasurably by the Armenian disaster. And even if he should succeed in swiftly bringing order out of the chaos, the ironic fact will remain that this Soviet leader appears more popular abroad than he is at home.
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