Moscow: Testing, Testing ...

More than a thousand fascinated Soviet citizens--a capacity crowd--were suddenly herded out of a U.S. Bicentennial exhibit in Moscow's Sokolniki Park last week. Soviet officials reported that a bomb was set to explode in the exhibition hall. The show, which depicts U.S. life, culture and history, has been drawing record throngs since its mid-November opening. Working with nonchalant ease, a bomb squad failed to find anything resembling an explosive, but the exhibit was forced to shut down for one day.

The transparently fictitious bomb threat was almost certainly a minor harassment cooked up by Russian officials. It may also have been the latest evidence of Moscow's hardening attitude toward the U.S. While the Kremlin remains basically committed to detente and arms limitation, Russian leaders seem to have embarked on a period of testing in foreign relations, designed to take the measure of Jimmy Carter and the incoming U.S. Administration--especially since Carter in some of his campaign speeches urged a tougher U.S. policy toward the Soviets. A senior American Kremlin watcher feels that the new Administration "will be starting on far cooler terms with the Soviet Union than we would have thought even a year ago."

No Explanation. In addition to the Sokolniki Park incident, the Kremlin last week virtually expelled the third-ranking U.S. embassy official, Marshall Brement, a career diplomat, fluent in Russian and Chinese. His Soviet visa was canceled a few days after he arrived in the U.S. on a home leave. Even more significantly, the Kremlin has failed to respond to the nomination of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Malcolm Toon as the next American envoy to the Soviet Union. The Soviets may be displeased with Toon, a blunt career diplomat, who is an expert on East European affairs and who served two prior tours in Moscow. But they have not offered a single word of explanation of why no action has been taken on the nomination since Toon's name was submitted three months ago. The Toon affair may well be Carter's first test in handling the Soviets. Many analysts believe if he withdraws the nomination, Brezhnev will view it as weakness. Carter will also have to deal with Moscow's criticisms of U.S. policy in southern Africa, the Middle East and even of its administration of Micronesia.

If the Soviets are opting for at least a temporary chill on relations with the U.S., they do so with more military muscle than ever before. Moscow has not only been rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, it has also increased its conventional forces so that it is today questionable whether NATO troops would be able to thwart a Russian thrust into Central Europe.

Peking, as well as Washington, seems to be undergoing probes by the Soviets. Hua Kuo-feng, Chairman Mao Tse-tung's successor, is at least as unfamiliar a face to the Russians as is Jimmy Carter. In contrast to its get-tough attitude toward Washington, the Kremlin seems to be holding an olive branch out to the Chinese. Since Mao's death, Radio Moscow's Chinese-language broadcasts have been stressing that "the fundamental interests in the two countries are identical." Recent speeches by Soviet officials have been notable for the absence of any political references that could offend Peking. This new diplomatic approach has yet to be reciprocated. At a Peking banquet last week for Jean-Bedel Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic, Chinese Vice Premier Li Hsien-nien accused the Soviets of "criminal actions" in Africa and of offering China "nothing but threats." The Soviet ambassador stalked out of the banquet.

To maintain calm in the Soviet Union's backyard, while it deals with Washington and Peking, Moscow has been trying to mend a few fences in Eastern Europe. Last week Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev flew to Belgrade--his first journey to Yugoslavia in five years. The effusive Brezhnev greeted Yugoslav President Josi f Broz Tito with three kisses and an exuberant bear hug. This was one more Slavic smooch than usual --perhaps an index of how anxious Moscow is to improve relations with the independent Yugoslavs. At an official dinner at the Federal Executive Council Building, Brezhnev ridiculed as "fairy tales" the widespread fears that Moscow would attempt to interfere in Yugoslav affairs after the 84-year-old Tito dies. Brezhnev also belittled the notion that Yugoslavia is "some poor helpless Little Red Riding Hood that the terrible bloodthirsty wolf--the aggressive Soviet Union--is preparing to tear apart and devour."

Improved Relations. This week, Brezhnev carries his wooing of East European leaders to Bucharest. It will be the first official visit to Rumania by the Soviet leader since he succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as party boss twelve years ago. Rumanian President Nicolae Ceausescu has long offended Moscow by his frequent and often strident proclamations of his regime's independence from the Soviets. In recent months, however, relations between Rumania and the U.S.S.R. have somewhat improved, as is indicated by the Brezhnev visit. Also significant is the fact that Ceausescu has allowed a Warsaw Pact summit meeting to convene in Bucharest during the Brezhnev visit. The Rumanian leader had always carefully tried to keep as distant as possible from the activities of the Moscow-led military alliance.

The East bloc, nonetheless, still presents Moscow with serious problems. There are signs that the Poles are growing restive over shortages of consumer goods and that the East Germans are increasingly bridling at their leaders' refusal to grant more personal freedoms. Meanwhile the Yugoslavs remain skeptical of Soviet intentions. Foreign observers thought there was as much nervousness as amusement in the laughter that followed Brezhnev's reference last week to the Soviet Union as a "bloodthirsty wolf." Said Aleksander Grlickov, a leading Yugoslav Communist: "We Yugoslavs laugh even when we are serious and uneasy."

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