Soviets score Washington for denying visa extension

The Soviet news agency Tass denounced as a "sordid move" the US State Department's refusal to extend the visa of the Kremlin's top American-affairs expert to enable him to appear on a television show. Tass said the move against Georgy Arbatov, who heads the Soviet Academy of Science's Institute on US and Canadian Affairs, was "motivated by the striving of the official US authorities to whip up the anti-Soviet hysteria . . . ."

the State Department refused to extend Mr. Arbatov's visa beyond April 5. The extension would have allowed him to appear on a Public Broadcasting Service program.

In Washington, the State Department's public explanation of the action was rooted in what the department called a "lack of reciprocity" between the TV access Soviet diplomats hav e in Washington and that of US officials in Moscow.