Photographs from Embassy Moscow, 1988 - 1992

File — Box: 2, Folder: 6

Scope and Contents

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan at Embassy Moscow, 1988

Picture of Blaney (foreground) speaking to a Russian. (He had just sailed an old, leaking wooden ship across the Bering Sea illegally to Alaska. Blaney, who was on a Senior Seminar visit to Alaska after leaving the Soviet Union, was asked to talk to the sailor, who only spoke Russian). Kodiak Island, Alaska. (1992)

McDonald’s in Moscow, workers behind the scenes, 1990. (Blaney was asked to attend as a U.S. official McDonald’s opening day on January 31st 1990 by Canadian franchise owners. After the ribbon cutting and serving ceremonies concluded, Blaney was informed by the owners of a bomb threat and extortion demand, but nothing happened. From the start, McDonald’s was hugely popular in the Soviet Union.)

Michael Dasaro, office of Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania, early 1991. (Dasaro worked for Blaney, and was changing Landsbergis’ clock from Soviet time to independent Lithuania’s declared time zone. Dasaro was an outstanding employee and spoke almost flawless Russian. He was murdered in Moscow in 1993.)

*(L-R) Grigory Yavlinsky (economist), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock, Minister-Counselor John Blaney, discussing perestroika. (1989)

*(L-R) Blaney, Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the Federal Reserve), Greenspan’s translator. Moscow, USSR. (1989)

*(L-R) Michael Joyce (Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy Moscow), translator, Robert Zoellick (Counselor of the State Department), John Blaney, Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the Federal Reserve). Moscow, USSR. (1989)

*(L-R) Chairman of the Supreme Council Republic of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis with John Blaney. In Landsbergis’ office in Vilnius, early 1991. (Lithuania announced its independence and was attacked by Soviet troops in January 1991. Within days, Blaney was dispatched to meet with Landsbergis and render U.S. diplomatic support for an independent Lithuania. Note close resemblance to one another. Blaney was constantly stopped on the street because they thought he was Landsbergis).

Dates

1988 - 1992

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