Free Republic

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Sunday that the crisis in Ukraine stems from the government’s failure to act democratically. […] “Ultimately this is the result of the failure of the government to act democratically” and to engage in dialogue and fight corruption, Gorbachev said during an address to a forum on government communications in the city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. He added that the root cause of the unrest in Ukraine was an “interruption of perestroika,” referring to his reform policies, and of the democratic process there. …

On June 21, 2013, the Financial Times newspaper of the UK, described Obama as the Mikhail Gorbachev of America: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9428c460-d906-11e2-84fa-00144feab7de.html#axzz2emZwGd8h Over the past few days, Putin has proven himself to be the Ronald Reagan of Russia. I am not trying to imply that Reagan and Putin have the same ideology. I am only trying to say that Reagan was a great patriot who fought for the long-term interests of America, while Putin is a Russian Patriot who fights for the long term interests of Russia. Putin has been telling the Russian people to have more babies, and the Russian government...

Twenty-six years ago today, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall.And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the...

On April 8, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Boston conference on ''media reform.'' She was joined by four other congressmen, a senator, two FCC commissioners, a Nobel laureate and numerous liberal journalists. The 2,500-person event was sponsored by a group called Free Press, one of more than 180 different media-related organizations that receives money from liberal billionaire George Soros. Soros, who first made a name for himself in investing and currency trading, now makes his name in politics and policy. Since the 2004 election, the controversial financier has used his influence and billions to push a laundry list...

She was never a politician. At least not in the understanding of the famous American preacher James Freeman Clarke, who in the nineteenth century had noticed that politicians think of the next election, a statesman, of the next generation. (...) Gorbachev never understood the value and the sense of democracy. For him democracy equals with the people’s democracy, Soviet tautology that had been used by Communist regimes as a smokescreen. Although some public figures understood it, not many had courage to admit and even less wanted to correct Mr. Gorbachev in public. Margaret Thatcher did. She understood that alleged Gorbachev’s...

Angelo Codevilla has spent more than his share of time as a sojourner among America’s ruling class. He was a key part of the Reagan transition and point-man in the Gipper’s efforts to transform both the foreign and the intelligence services. Then later he served as a professor of International Relations at prestigious Boston University. From this vantage point, Codevilla was able to get a close look not only at the international relations elite, but at the entire American ruling class, from which the former are overwhelmingly drawn. I had the honor of sitting across a Skype line with Angelo...

A retired Soviet lieutenant colonel whose self-control prevented a nuclear war from being triggered by a long-classified accident in 1983 was named on Friday a recipient of a German anti-war prize. Stanislav Petrov, 73, won the fourth Dresden-Preis (Dresden Prize), which comes complete with a check for 25,000 euro ($32,000), prize organizers said on their website, Friendsofdresden-deutschland.com. The prize is to be bestowed at a ceremony in Dresden on Feb. 17, the anniversary of the Dresden bombing in 1945, the organizers said. Ironically for a military officer, Petrov shot to fame for ignoring his direct responsibilities. The officer served at...

Dear Askel5, For many years, I thought you were a bit of a nut. A very INTELLIGENT nut, but a nut nonetheless. Your constant harping about Gramscian politics was, to my mind, weird a little paranoid. It turns out you were one hundred percent right. The move to destroy America has been very below-the-surface, highly organized, and extremely effective ... and the model has been, indeed, Antonio Gramsci's.From the work Notes on Saul Alinsky and Neo-Marxism: Remember that the primary influence for Obama's strategy comes from Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." With that in mind..."Alinsky's tactics were based, not on...

Every American high school student knows, or should know, that President Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on this date in 1987. The President said: “If you seek liberalization, open this gate…Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall.” (Yes, kids, there was a West Berlin then.) *snip* As important as Reagan’s dramatic call to “tear down this wall” was, we should not forget what else he said that memorable day twenty-five years ago. His speech contained the most eloquent paean to religious freedom we have heard. Reagan was not afraid to point to: …the most fundamental distinction of...

In a story that is sure to delight conservatives with a sense of irony, former Soviet head honcho Mikhail Gorbachev has announced that he has every intention of supporting President Obama for reelection. It’s not quite an endorsement, but it’s as close as Gorbachev will probably get. You may remember that this is the same Mikhail Gorbachev who dissolved the Soviet Union, which he only did, according to some sources, after being thoroughly outgunned and outfoxed by former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980′s. The endorsement came at, of all places, a high school, where Gorbachev was delivering a lecture...

Meteorologist Brian Sussman blows whistle on president's scheme The environmentalist movement isn’t about protecting the environment at all, according to meteorologist-turned-journalist Brian Sussman. It’s about destroying private property, controlling behavior, and expanding government – and the Obama administration has a secret plan to further all of it, he says. Sussman is now blowing the whistle on the real nature of environmentalism in his explosive brand-new book, “Eco-Tyranny.” He reveals secret memos from inside Obama’s Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, outlining a covert plan “to pursue a program of land consolidation” for the federal government to secure tens of millions...

The Obama Record: The president's shredding of the Constitution began at the Preamble's provision for the common defense. He gave away our missile defense to appease Moscow and betray our allies. Derided as Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative announced by President Reagan on March 23, 1983, was to be the fulfillment of his dream of being able to deter or even defeat a nuclear missile attack, rather than avenge one, with a multilayered system of defenses aimed at enemy missiles in all stages of flight. SDI and its concept of defending America and its allies were attacked as destabilizing...

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called on Tuesday for the creation of an international court to try environmental crimes, in an interview published in French daily Le Monde. "I would personally look favourably upon creating an international tribunal to try those responsible for environmental crimes, both business leaders and the heads of state or government," the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize recipient said. Gorbachev, who was in the southern French city of Marseille on Monday to speak at the Sixth World Water Forum, has led the environmental pressure group Green Cross International since 1993.

This was a joint New Year's Day Message by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. There is a sense of the Cold War ending because both leaders were talking about peace and Nuclear Arms Reduction. This video is in the Public Domain. The Master Copy can be found at the National Archives and Records Administration, Room 4000, 8601 Adelphi Road, Hyattsville, MD 20740-6001. The Archival Retrieval Catalog (ARC) number is: 59591

Mikhail Gorbachev called on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin not to seek a third term as president next year. He told the Moscow Echo radio: "I would advise Vladimir Putin to leave now. He has had three terms: two as president and one as prime minister. Three terms – that is enough." Mr Gorbachev, 80, has been virulently critical of the elections that took place on December 4. Soon after the poll he said that the results of the poll should be annulled and new elections held due to "numerous falsifications and rigging." "The results do not reflect the will of...

Gorbachev:  . . .  That night, I retuned to my dacha shortly before dawn — and went for a walk with Raisa.SPIEGEL: You never discussed important issues with your wife at home?Gorbachev: You had to go outside. We also never discussed important things openly at the dacha. When I cleared out our Moscow apartment after stepping down as president, they found all kinds of wiring in the walls. It turned out that they had been spying on me all along. . .   SPIEGEL: . . . You only treated the symptoms of the sick communist system, but you didn’t...

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev criticized the government on Wednesday for taking Russia backward and said that the nation needs free elections and fresh leadership. He was speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary of Aug. 19, 1991, hardline coup that briefly ousted him and precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev, who turned 80 in March and underwent spinal surgery in April, looked strong and spoke energetically during a news conference that lasted more than an hour. Gorbachev criticized the United Russia party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which he described as a bad copy of the Soviet...

An amazing interview with the top communist apparatchik Mikhail Gorbachev. He repeats, although this time quite clearly, that in fact he was fighting to keep the Soviet Union alive. He did his best to defend the Soviet Union. Gorbachev explains that perestroika succeeded but it was disrupted. Soviet Union "could have existed longer today as the community of the sovereign states".

Following are excerpts from a statement by Mufti of Oman Ahmad Muhammad Al-Khalili, which aired on Al-Jazeera Network TV on April 27, 2011I: Muhammad Al-Khalili: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev gave an interview on a British TV channel, and he was asked: "Can Communism survive in Vietnam and China?" He said: "No. Communism is dead, so it cannot survive." He was asked: "What is the alternative?" He said: "I don't believe that the alternative is capitalism, socialism, or democracy. The alternative is a different order. We have to adapt to a new civilization." That day, I asked...

"Investigative journalists doing their jobs should dig deep, into Pelosi's role in the controversial, $280-million, federal-funded Hunters Point Shipyard affair - in relation to her alleged role as an investor in a real estate investment called PRESIDIO PARTNERS. Look past the fact that the 936-acre site, of which about 443 acres are not polluted - Hunter Point is the largest tract of undeveloped land in San Francisco. Roll Call stated that in early 2004, Murtha “reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the City of San Francisco” and that “Laurence...