The State - News from June 23, 1986

A Soviet delegation visiting the old mining town of Nevada City criticized the media in the United States and how Russian political and social life is portrayed. “The American mass media are doing little to improve relations between the two countries,” said spokesman Vitali Ignatenko, editor of a Russian political weekly. “When your Challenger exploded, we lived it as our own tragedy. With the Chernobyl accident, the overwhelming majority of (U.S.) news could not be interpreted in any other way than a celebration of the accident.” The five-member delegation of Soviet citizens visited Nevada City as part of a West Coast visit sponsored by Projects for Planetary Peace, a nonprofit organization based in the little town about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.