SHORT TAKES : Soviet Elite Getting Blue Movies

MOSCOW —  Members of the ruling Soviet elite, their sex drive depleted by the stress of economic and social collapse, revive their erotic interest with blue movies bought for scarce hard currency, a Soviet sex expert said.

Sergei Agarkov told a Moscow youth daily today that a little-known branch of the State Committee for Cinema buys erotic films for government and Communist Party leaders.

“Sexuality at the highest levels of the leadership is repressed. The social status is high, but the problems are many,” Agarkov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.

“The career track, survival, the struggle for a place in the sun, stress--all kill off sexuality.”