Score One for Glasnost: Tass Reporter Reveals Reagan Wrote to Gorbachev
A Soviet reporter disclosed Thursday that President Reagan recently sent a letter to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, but White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said it was news to him.
Nikolai Turkatenko, Washington bureau chief of the Soviet news agency Tass, said Reagan’s letter was received at the Kremlin “two or three days ago.”
Turkatenko, a regular at Fitzwater’s daily news briefing, said the letter was being studied by Soviet officials and added, “I thought maybe in the White House they have more glasnost-- maybe you could tell us about it?”
Glasnost is the widely publicized new Soviet policy of openness.
“I’ll have to check this out,” the presidential spokesman said.
Asked by an American reporter if the Tass representative was telling him something he didn’t know, Fitzwater laughed and replied, “That’s true--the man is amazing.”
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