Senator Robert Kasten (R-Wisconsin) will spearhead AFPC’s second conference in the Soviet Union.  Senator Kasten originally participated in AFPC’s Moscow Summer School held in June of last year.  Impressed by the Soviets sincere interest involving the workings of the U.S. Government, Senator Kasten believes that another gathering involving politicians from the U.S. and Soviet Union would be beneficial to the rapport between the two super powers while further promoting the values of a free and democratic society.

Originally scheduled for the end of May, the Senatorial envoy has been rescheduled to later this August because of a conflict with overlapping dates with the Presidential Summit.

Recently two reform minded Soviet officials from the Academy of Sciences, Vladamir Korghevsky and Sergei Shamonov, were visiting to arrange the details of the Senatorial envoy.  Besides private meetings with many of the most prominent Soviet officials, the trip is being organized with each prospective participant’s interests in mind.  Options will include: first hand encounters with self-financing companies and co-operatives, engagements with dissident groups, tours of government organizations, and personal, one on one, meetings arranged at the request of each participant.  The conference shall also include a meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. 

With the recent developments in the Baltic countries and questions arising as to the validity of the Gorbachev reforms, the true intentions of the Soviet nomenklatura have come under greater scrutiny.  AFPC hopes this envoy will prove to be a barometer of events within the confines of the Soviet Union.