Posted on 08/17/2011 9:04:38 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Mikhail Gorbachev has had 20 years to dwell on his regrets. There were the coup plotters he should have pre-empted. There was his Crimean vacation in 1991– in retrospect a bad time to go on holiday. There was the sense of change sweeping the Soviet Union, which he should have anticipated.
And then there was his nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, who should have been sidelined with some kind of diplomatic posting – London perhaps.
"I was probably too liberal and democratic as regards Yeltsin. I should have sent him as ambassador to Great Britain or maybe a former British colony," Gorbachev told the Guardian in a wide-ranging interview marking the 20th anniversary of the coup that ultimately ended his six-year stint as Soviet leader. ....
Gorbachev's final years in office were plagued by the spectacle of bread queues, empty grocery stores and shortages in everything from meat to matches. "If we had taken 10 or 15 billions out of that budget to fill the consumer market with products, that would have given us support." ....
On Nato's current bombing campaign in Libya, he is implacable.
"Stop the bombing. Stop the killing. Stop the destruction. It's degenerated into killing people and destruction and I think this is really defiance. It's defiant behaviour," he says.
"Let's go to the United Nations and discuss whether the current policy is acceptable. I say no. Poor democracy. Under the flag of democracy all kinds of things are done."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Typical communist rewriting history. The only reason he “opened up” was to generate more money to compete with Reagan’s military buildup and SDI.
Gorbachev reminding us all once again that rather than being the transformative figure that brought democracy to Russia - as he is so lionized in the west - he is a bumbling, rueful communist who, like Putin, regrets the fall of the Soviet Empire. Beaten by Reagan, period.
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....he is a bumbling, rueful communist who, like Putin, regrets the fall of the Soviet Empire. Beaten by Reagan, period.
Exactly!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2060552/posts
When Lithuanian President Landsbergis attempted to call Gorbachev about the invading Russian tanks and bloodshed in 1991, Landsbergis was informed that Gorbachev “was out to lunch” and couldn't be disturbed! Seems Gorby is still out to lunch and evermore the irrelevant stereotypical hypocritical Russian leader!
Yes Mikhail, you were weak. Dictatorship requires cunning and ruthlessness, not merely a perverse soul and arrogance. Iosef would have sent you to the wall for your bumbling.
Boris busted such balls as you had, God bless the old drunken patriot.
Yeltsin was too soft on Gorby.
THANK YOU!!!! I was just preparing to post along those lines.
And as an unrepentant communist, ol’ Gorby Glasnost will always have a home in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government along with all the other America-haters.
OTOH the son of Nikita Khrushchev knew which side his blinchiki were buttered on, and went on to become a U.S. citizen.
After saving Gorbachev, he then sent him packing...
With all due respect, my recollection is that hours before the dawn of the year 2000, with the very real fear of Y2K meltdown looming (particularly in Russia), Boris resigned in favor of Vladimir Putin. Can’t say for fact, but some say it was a bloodless coup. The world owed Brave Boris a debt of thanks in 1991, but nine years later, he was pretty much a worthless drunk (IMHO). Not the man to be in command of a nuclear power, in the event of catastrophe. Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts.
Rarely are men who lead revolutions the best men to lead after the revolution.
Agreed. Geo. Washington excepted, of course.
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Say this for Yeltsin: he served two terms and then walked away. That was an amazing thing to do given the history. Putin has that "president for life" streak in him.