TV & VIDEO - April 11, 1989

The spirit of glasnost made its way to the air waves late last week when Soviet television broadcast the first meeting in more than 70 years between a Soviet leader and a British royal figure. Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth II met at Windsor Castle on Friday, in what television announcers proclaimed “the first contact of its kind since 1917” when close relations between Russian and British nobility ended. The nightly news program “Vremya” touted the symbolic significance of the British monarch’s hospitality to the Soviet leader. The program included a shot of Gorbachev’s cortege gliding up the drive to Windsor Castle and praised the castle’s furnishings and art as “invaluable collections.” Gorbachev invited the queen to visit Moscow, and she accepted but said her schedule was fixed years in advance.