Soviet attempts to suppress further details of the accident were unraveling. In a classified report to Gorbachev on May 3, Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze warned that continued secrecy was counterproductive and had already bred distrust not only in Western Europe but also with friendly nations planning to embrace Soviet nuclear technology, including India and Cuba. Shevardnadze wrote that taking the traditional approach to the accident was also endangering Gorbachev’s dream of brokering a historic nuclear disarmament initiative with the United States. Western newspapers were asking
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