We have a pretty good idea what remarkable images Americans will see during the upcoming Moscow summit: Reagan toasted in the Kremlin, embracing dissidents and Bolsheviks, chatting with Christian monks, talking shop with Russian filmmakers. Not to mention Nancy at the Monument to the Defenders in Leningrad. To capture this presidential tour de force, there will be more American TV technicians in Moscow than spies and diplomats combined. What with the eight-hour time difference, Reagan appearances will be beamed back to the United States in plenty of time for morning newscasts. Breakfast at Wimbledon? This will be breakfast at the Hall of Facets. But what about the Soviet people? What will Gostelradio, the Soviet radio-and-television monopoly, show of the summit? Will Reagan and the refuseniks lead off Vremya (the evening news)? Already, Soviet TV has taped a interview with Reagan for broadcast on Friday. But it was a simple ``talking head'' session, 30 minutes of question-and-answer _ with none of the adventure or significance of next week's Reagan tours around Moscow. American experts believe Soviet television will broadcast excerpts from the president's address at Moscow University in the Lenin Hills, as well as ceremonial exchanges between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin. If there are agreements to be signed, the klieg lights will be set up in Vladimir's Hall. And surely there will be footage from the Bolshoi, where the Gorbachevs host the Reagans for a 90-minute ballet sampler. But will Soviet officials air highlights from the Danilov Monastery, where Reagan will discuss religious freedom with monks who work restoring Orthodox icons? How much will be broadcast from Reagan's dialogue on artistic freedom with Soviet intellectuals at the Union of Writers club? And what of the first lady's visit to Leningrad _ will she be shown touring the Hermitage, much as Raisa Gorbachev was shown on American TV touring the Smithsonian galleries? Just what images will Glasnost permit? Will Soviet television let Reagan be Reagan? `It'll be very interesting to see what they show on television the week before the summit,'' former Ambassador Arthur Hartman said last week, wondering whether Gostelradio will ``show the bum on the grate.'' Soviet TV loves to broadcast pictures of hapless vagabonds reduced to sleeping on the heat grates near the White House; it's a sad and pathetic side of the American dream and many viewers of Soviet TV probably have come to believe it's an accurate snapshot of life in America. But certainly something is afoot on the Gostelradio side of Glasnost. Just last week, Soviet TV viewers got a glance of Michael Jackson's Pepsi performance, a glimpse of a Visa card and a sales pitch for the quality of Sony TVs. Never mind that you can't get a Sony TV in the USSR. Commercials for Pepsi, Visa and Sony were aired last week in the midst of a five-part Soviet series on life in the United States. Estimated audience: 120 million people. ``I expect we might get some angry letters from people saying, `Why are you advertising Sony TVs when we can't buy any?''' TV personality Vladimir Posner said at a news conference announcing his series. To hear him tell it, the decision to air the commercials was less Glasnost than Perestroika (the Gorbachev campaign for economic reform). ``We on our part can make some money out of this, which in our day and age when we are becoming economically self-supportive and self-sufficient, also makes sense,'' Posner said. Reports in the United States said the Soviet broadcast agency Gostelradio received $10,000 for each 30-second ad. Profit motive. That's the American way.
