Some Muscovites tuned in

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 10

Some Muscovites tuned in

NZPA-AFP Moscow A brief man-in-the-street survey in Moscow yesterday indicated that at least part of Moscow’s population had tuned in to Ronald Reagan’s 10-minute radio speech to the Soviet Union at the week-end. Two out of more than a dozen people interviewed by Agence France-Presse said that they had heard the broadcast, and one of these retracted his statements — even though they backed the Soviet Government line — when told they were to be published. The United States Embassy said that it was heard without jamming on two Moscow frequencies. It was also audible in Leningrad,

but it was uncertain what other parts of the country it had reached.

It was impossible to estimate how many Soviet listeners had tuned in. It was broadcast, in translation, by the Voice of America, one of a group of Western radio stations that together have a faithful listening audience of some 20 million Soviet citizens — 15 per cent of the population, or the same size as the Soviet Communist Party — according to Western estimates.

The United States Gov-ernment-financed Voice of America is repeatedly denounced by officials in Moscow as “imperialist propaganda”, but it is no longer

officially a crime to listen to such stations.

“I rushed to my radio to listen to the Voice of America, as usual,” said one Moscow resident in his 20s, who admitted listening to the broadcast, in which Mr Reagan chiefly sought to justify his space-based missile defence project, the strategic defence initiative, and to soothe fears of any United States threat against the Soviet Union.

The project, popularly known as “star wars,” is sharply opposed by Moscow. The young man had agreed with Mr Reagan when he called for better relations between Moscow and Washington, but said that he was a painter and

not terribly interested in politics. Another man in his 30s at first gave a long comment on the broadcast, then quickly denied every having heard it when told he was to be quoted. In his initial statements he repeated the official line in Moscow about the “star wars” project, saying he viewed it as an “offensive measure” threatening his country. He also said that he had “confidence in the Soviet press” when asked about Mr Reagan’s assertion that important parts of his recent interview with Soviet journalists had not been published by the Soviet press.