Sergeant
This has mostly been a sightseeing day for the prime minister, she spent the morning at the large ancient monastery at Zagorsk about 40 miles outside Moscow. Wearing a brown fur hat against the cold, she visited churches, lit a candle for peace, and was presented with an icon. She frequently stopped to shake hands with people from the large crowds that gathered. She was warmly welcomed. This afternoon when she was visiting some modern blocks of flats, on the outskirts of Moscow, she was spontaneously applauded by the crowd. Throughout most of her tour Mrs Thatcher was followed by more than a hundred journalists and cameramen, most of them British. At times it looked like a British election tour, but when the prime minister was asked a question which she took as a suggestion that she was “electioneering”, Mrs Thatcher reacted sharply.:
Thatcher
If you mean connected with Party politics at home, no. I am here to represent my country on a historic mission, and I would ask you to take it that way, and just to enlarge your views of what it's about.
Sergeant
This evening, the prime minister will attend a special performance of the Bolshoi Ballet, and tomorrow, the serious talking begins, with Mr Gorbachev.