BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Major Warsaw Pact maneuvers began in Bulgaria Saturday and Soviet Marshal Viktor Kulikov criticized 'American imperialism' for attempting to disunite the Soviet bloc alliance, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported from Sofia.
The ground, air and naval war games -- codenamed Shield-82 - involved about 60,000 soldiers and were the biggest of their kind held in Bulgaria, Moscow's staunchest ally among the Eastern European Communist bloc countries.
The maneuvers, held under the command of Bulgarian Defense Minister Gen. Dobri Dzurov are to last until Oct. 1 in eastern Bulgaria and the Black Sea.
Kulikov, commander-in-chief of the seven-nation Warsaw Pact armed forces, told the Sofia newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo the international situation 'has never been so serious and dangerous since World War II.'
In the interview, Kulikov blamed 'American imperialism' for the situation and charged the United States with making efforts to disunite the countries of the 'Socialist community,' Tanjug said in its report from the Bulgarian capital.
Kulikov said all attempts to break the present arms balance would lead to 'new competition in armament and increasing war dangers.'
In his interview, prepared for Rabotnichesko Delo by a Soviet news agency APN military reporter, Kulikov did not mention the maneuvers which began Saturday in Bulgaria.
Earlier in the week the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported from Sofia 'soldiers of the Romanian army who will take part in the Shield-82 military exercises arrived' in Bulgaria. A Romanian Embassy official in Belgrade said Romania had sent only officers to take part in staff exercises, which has been the case for the past 15 years.
Following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968, when only Romanian soldiers were not among Warsaw Pact units, Bucharest has refused to send troops, except for staff officers, for maneuvers to other Warsaw Pact countries and does not allow soldiers from the Soviet bloc countries on its soil.
