European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 01, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday september 1, 1985 foreigners in Moscow a f fishbowl environment dissident tendencies Are isolated and elaborate precautions Are taken to minimize Chance encounters. For those diplomats and correspondents whose jobs require contacts with rus turn ugly. Sians if is a system that can by Serge Schmemann new York times for Many foreigners living in Moscow the allegation thai a Yellowish and Poss Bly dangerous powder was used to Irack their movements came As Only another element Inone of the world s More unusual environments the me of foreigners in Moscow is one that blends the pressures of possible of Lucial surveillance and pervasive distrust with elaborate privileges ii is a setting that testers both heightened suspiciousness and Strong Bonds with russians a Wor 1 that foreigners bemoan while living in the so Iel capital and miss when they leave. The foreigners have apartments in a dozen or so buildings whose entrances Are guarded around the clock by policemen who Monitor comings and goings and turn away unauthorized russians. The cars of foreign residents have special License plates that Are easy to identify by the police. Their telephones Are presumed to be tapped and their apartments bugged and contacts with russians were assumed to be monitored even before the american charge that the special tracking powder was being used to Trace movements and contacts. Yet within the fishbowl environment life is enticingly comfortable and Safe. The dangers of crime Are negligible the apartments and other benefits allocated to foreign residents Are a beyond anything soviet citizens could Ever have. Hard currency shops stocked with the finest goods insulate foreigners from the chronic shortages that beset soviet society and a special Agency of the soviet foreign ministry called the administration or servicing the diplomatic corps known by its russian initials updo. Islands ready to Supply not Only diplomats but All foreign residents with anything from secretaries and maids to horseback Riding lessons furniture repair a weekend Retreat or linoleum. It is a system that reflect a dual attitude deeply rooted in the russian mind. On the one hand there is an Awe before foreigners a sense that they must be treated As special guests and isolated from the hardships of file. On the other hand there is deep seated distrust nourished by Olli Cial propaganda that depicts foreigners As potential spies and ideological foes intent on subverting the soviet system. This unusual environment tends to Foster Strong bends within the isolated foreign Community and provides a life of comfortably limited Choice no hand wringing about what school to Send the children to where to shop or where to live. So secure can life be that the . Embassy has organized re entry seminars or families returning to the United states to prepare them or the realities there. The treatment of foreigners in the soviet Union is deeply rooted in the russian past. Under the communists As under the czars the purpose has been to isolate foreigners from the people to prevent permissiveness and Independence from infecting the natives. Many cities and Large areas of the soviet Union Are closed 1o foreigners presumably because of the presence of military Industry and other secret activities and even visits to so called open areas require prior notice to the government. Whenever major influxes of foreigners Are expected As or the 1980 olympics or the International youth festival this summer. Muscovites suspected of local lore is Rich in stories of Otis curtail contacts. In the stalinist up. A meeting with a foreigner could be fatal for a russian the dangers Are far lesser Noah. But scores of dissidents sit in labor Camps after trials at which their contacts with foreigner Sowre the main evidence of anti soviet activity. For foreigners too. Efforts to meet with russians can prove fairy. Several times in recent years reporters hav been blocked or pushed around by  when frying to meet with russians and several correspondents have been summoned for Kab grilling about their contacts. No one knows for sure How extensive the surveillance is and Many of the popular legends Are doubtlessly apocryphal like the old one about a Diplomat complaining at Home about uncollected garbage Only to have it promptly carted away or about a listening device falling out of a television and a to repairman materializing without any summons. So extensive i evidence of Kab watching that Many diplomats and correspondents come to presume it at All times and routinely censor their conversations in apartments cars and even courtyards. One russian recently told of telephoning a foreigner from the apartment of a Friend. The Friend he said was soon summoned for a Chat with the Kab. The trials of dissidents often yield detailed records of All their contacts with foreigners. And beyond the evidence of external surveillance Many russians who meet regularly with foreigners Are suspected of being informants. It is an atmosphere that leads to habitually hushed and constrained conversations and an instinctive distrust As Welt As a special lexicon of hand signals a Knock on the table Means informant a Finger pointed upward is a reminder of the hidden eavesdropping. A guard Box among can at a foreigners compound in Moscow allows soviet militiamen to observe who get in and out a fill photo