Gromyko Tells Tatars to Back Off

MOSCOW —  A group of Crimean Tatars who held a 21-hour protest in Red Square met in the Kremlin today with President Andrei A. Gromyko and were told it wasn’t in their interest to put more pressure on the government, Tass said.

Gromyko heads a government commission formed last week to look into the problems of the Crimean Tatars, who want to return to the homeland from which they were expelled during World War II. Tass, the official press agency, said Gromyko told the Tatars that “any attempts to put pressure on the organs of state power can only complicate the work of the commission.” Gromyko told the Tatars it would take time to deal with their grievances and they would be carefully studied. (Protest story on Page 4.)