AFTERMATH OF WAR : In the Soviet Union

Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Moscow MAY HAVE GIVEN SADDAM HUSSEIN FALSE ENCOURAGEMENT in the Gulf crisis. “It is possible that not all the signals that we sent to Saddam Hussein were always justified. . . . Some signals were false and may have given Saddam encouragement,” he said without elaboration. In an interview with the liberal weekly Moscow News, Shevardnadze said a diplomatic flurry by the Kremlin to head off the war was partly motivated by concern for thousands of Soviet nationals in Iraq. “And the Americans understood that--although somewhere deep in their hearts they probably had a bitter feeling.”