In Defiance of Sanctions

With foreign help, the controversial Soviet pipeline is completed

To the Soviets it was the "deal of the century," but in the West it is better remembered as an unnecessary source of tension between the U.S. and Western Europe. The Reagan Administration vigorously opposed European plans to help build and finance an $18 billion, 2,759-mile pipeline designed to deliver up to 20 billion cubic meters a year of natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe. The U.S. not only barred American companies from working on the project, but it imposed economic sanctions (suspended five months later) against West European participants. But as the U.S. and its allies squabbled, the Soviets kept on building. Indeed, according to Soviet officials, the laying of the pipeline has been completed six months ahead oj schedule, and the first Siberian gas will begin flowing to Western Europe in January. TIME'S Nancy Traver is one of the few Western reporters who have been allowed to visit a construction site. Her report:

The scene could be straight from a 19th century novel by Leo Tolstoy. Horse-drawn carts carry cabbages along muddy, unpaved roads. Walking along the riverbank in the low sun, an elderly woman wearing a mobcap carries a yoke on her shoulders, with buckets of water hanging on each end. She is returning to her home, a wooden cabin with no running water, in a village not far from Pomary, an obscure rail siding on the banks of the Volga River, 400 miles east of Moscow. Along the way, she encounters brightly colored blue-and-yellow bulldozers and pipelaying machines.

In one of those paradoxes that the Soviet Union abounds in, Pomary has become the site of one of the country's most ambitious projects. The village's 400 residents, who earn their living from farming have seen their isolation jarred by the incessant sound of explosions, jackhammers and heavy construction equipment. Located along the pipeline's route, Pomary is not far from where the line passes under the Volga River. One of 41 compressor stations whose huge 25-megawatt turbine compressors will move the gas is also near by.

To make room for one of four pipelines that converge near Pomary, an enormous gash has been cut through the forest east of the river. In the middle of the Volga a powerful dredge scoops up hundreds of tons of sand, digging the trench in which the pipeline will be laid. On the river's western bank, the completed pipeline juts up from the water and disappears into a steep, rocky ridge. Unperturbed by tl frenetic activity, fishermen walk along the pipe that has not yet been laid and cast their nets into the Volga.

The Pomary section bears all the signs of a multinational project. The huge 600-ft -long, 4 1/2-ft.-wide section of pipe that cuts under the riverbanks is from West Germany and Japan. Finland supplied the building that houses the turbine compressors, Britain the electrical equipment, Japan the valves, Italy the turbine compressors. Technicians from all those countries have been working on the project.

The station's gleaming control panel is stamped with a red and white General Electric logo. The Soviets bought the complex walls of instruments from Nuovo Pignone. An Italian firm, it also manufactures G E.-licensed turbine compressors.

In one camp, Soviet workers are assigned to share narrow, sparse barracks with outdoor plumbing. They cook on hot plates or go to a cafeteria for meals. A fore man says that plenty of entertainment is available. The workers, he says, can play chess and volleyball in their spare time. They have a room in which they watch television and movies, as well as an indoor swimming pool. To break the monotony, a bus takes them to Kazan (pop. 1 million), which is a two-hour drive away. Hanging outside the workers' barracks, propaganda posters, each adorned with a red hammer and sickle, depict Soviet men and women striding proudly toward the future.

Because living conditions at the cam; are harsh, pipeline crews are paid 10% more than their urban counterparts. Some exceptionally efficient workers may receive the use of a car and an apartment, major privileges in the Soviet Union. All the workers were also promised bonuses of up to six months' wages if the pipeline was finished ahead of schedule.

The bonus offers surely helped, but workers credit the U.S. sanctions for speeding the project along. "The ban aroused enthusiastic feeling in our crews, says Pavel Sokolov, regional director of the project. "Reagan said he would stop our work but we said we'd do it in any case, and we did." The sanctions did cause some inconvenience. The Italian firm that was manufacturing the turbine compressor units was forced to slow production because a crucial part that fell under the Reagan sanctions was in short supply.

The Italian firm met its deadline to ship 57 turbine compressors, but the Soviets were still forced by U.S. sanctions to redesign certain parts to make turbine compressors and generators compatible.

According to Pavel Cheturov, chief builder of the Pomary station, the sanctions forced the Soviets to develop some sophisticated technology of their own, including an automatic pipe welder and a turbine needed fi the compressor station. Sums up a Western businessman familiar with the project:

"The Soviets have done a helluva job. You have to give them credit for it." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.