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- <text id=89TT1280>
- <title>
- May 15, 1989: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- May 15, 1989 Waiting For Washington
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Glasnost may mean greater openness in the U.S.S.R., but it
- isn't every day that you can drop in for tea with the Soviet
- Foreign Minister. But last week Moscow bureau chief John Kohan
- and correspondent Ann Blackman did, joining Eduard Shevardnadze
- in his seventh-floor Kremlin office for tea and his first
- interview with an American magazine. At one point Shevardnadze,
- graciously offering a cup to Blackman, allowed that by his own
- count, he has appeared in TIME on at least 40 occasions.
- </p>
- <p> With this week's cover stories, make that at least 41. From
- the inception of perestroika, our Moscow bureau has chronicled
- the stunning make-over of the Soviet Union. For Blackman, who
- arrived in 1987 after 17 years in Washington, delving into
- Gorbachev's odd combination of internal imbroglios and dynamic
- foreign policy has proved the opportunity of a lifetime. Says
- Blackman: "For a reporter today, Moscow is the big rock-candy
- mountain. There's a story on every street corner." Last month
- she and Kohan scoured the country to report TIME's special issue
- on the "new" Soviet Union. Shevardnadze called it a "fitting
- title." The 3,000 copies of the magazine available in Moscow and
- Leningrad sold out in a couple of days.
- </p>
- <p> The Shevardnadze interview was the culmination of a week of
- unprecedented access to the Foreign Ministry. The two spent 15
- hours interviewing eight top diplomats and aides who offered
- insights into the workings of both the Foreign Ministry and
- Shevardnadze himself. In fact, the Soviets have become gluttons
- for glasnost. One session, conducted in both Russian and
- English, took eight hours. Says Blackman: "It was John and I who
- finally suggested we call it a day." At another interview with
- a top Shevardnadze staffer, Blackman was locked in the room to
- hear everything the official had to say. "We can't take any
- chances," an aide explained sheepishly. No problem. We never run
- away from a good story.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-