Word: brezhnevs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sokolov's execution shocked many people because he had influential friends, among them the family of the late Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. For years, the flamboyant Sokolov provided high Soviet officials with gourmet foods that are rarely seen in Soviet stores. In exchange, he lived a privileged life: he was said to own several ZILS, the Soviet-made limousine reserved for high party officials, as well as country homes outside Moscow. But the government apparently decided to make an example of Sokolov as part of the Kremlin's campaign against corruption, and the store manager was found guilty...
...days Dobrynin could sometimes get 24-hour turnaround messages straight from Leonid Brezhnev. He had a private phone line from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a special parking place in the State Department's basement. All that stopped with Reagan's Administration. Dobrynin now goes in the State Department's public entrance. And so cold are U.S.-Soviet relations that it matters less whether Dobrynin has the instant ear of the Politburo...
...there? That is the question that continues to intrigue Presidents. Are these Soviets really heartless or are they so intimidated by the system that they cannot act human? Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believed they had found at least an auricle of Leonid Brezhnev, and detente followed. Jimmy Carter, who hand-penned some notes to Brezhnev, even thought the replies were special-until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan...
Presidents cannot give up. Reagan, while recovering from his gunshot wound, wrote out six or seven pages to Brezhnev with his feelings about making the world better for the plain people of both countries. The President showed his draft to the bureaucrats, who translated it into incomprehensible language. Reagan rejected the rewrite and sent his version instead. Back came the boiler plate...
...Brezhnev's failing health was believed to be one reason for the sterile response to Reagan's first Kremlin missive. The exhaustive analysis of each phrase and word that the national-security experts made of Yuri Andropov's replies gave hope there was a personal heartbeat coming through. But when doctors hooked him up to the kidney-dialysis machine, they must have plugged in his pen too. His later responses seemed drained of life. The latest letter Reagan sent to Chernenko met with such a canned response that Reagan brought it up publicly two weeks...