The Gnat That Grabbed

Russia is forever exhorting small, underdeveloped countries to rise up and seize foreign holdings on their territory --naturally referring only to properties of the "imperialist" West. Last week Moscow found itself on the receiving end of the confiscation kick, target of a brash grab by its defiant onetime Communist ally--tiny Albania.

In the flyblown Albanian capital of Tirana, tough police had marched into and taken over five buildings that once served as Soviet embassy headquarters, before the two countries broke diplomatic ties in 1961. The buildings had been under the care of three Soviet "technicians," and the seizure followed an unsuccessful campaign to pressure the caretakers out by cutting off their water and electricity. For Russia it was injury added to insults. Albania's Red Boss Enver Hoxha once called Nikita Khrushchev a "revisionist" to his face, and reportedly ordered Soviet submarines out of Albania's naval base. In Moscow, Russian officialdom squealed like stuck imperialists, complained that the Albanians "trample underfoot the elementary standards of international law." What's more, said Moscow, Albanians are Indian givers, since the buildings "stand on territory presented by the Albanian government as a gift." Gift, shmift, sniffed Tirana--reporting that they were confiscated because the Russians had never paid the $1,700,000 construction bill for them. The Tirana government said that it finally had to settle the account itself by paying the state-owned construction company out of national bank funds.

The entire ploy was doubtless intended in part to please Albania's pal, Red China. The embassy harassment began last December, on the very eve of a visit by Peking's touring Chou Enlai, who was welcomed in the gnat-size Balkan backwater (pop. 1,800,000) with the brave slogan: "We and the Chinese are 700 million strong."

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