Free Republic

WASHINGTON: The US and Russia had both emerged victorious at the end of the Cold War, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said. "I would not be making a mistake to say that perestroika won. It succeeded," he said during a celebration of the 20th anniversary of reforms that ultimately ended the hostilities between the two nations. Mr Gorbachev also reflected on the current state of world affairs, noting the role of the US as the sole superpower. "America has a right to be a leader," he said, adding that "this leadership should be realised through partnership, not domination". Former US...

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has warned the US about its approach of trying to pressure Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. "We must not dictate our terms. We must conduct responsible dialogue with Iran," the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner said during a visit to London to attend an International Leadership Summit conference. Speaking on BBC's Newsnight Tuesday, he said that he did not think there were great differences between Russia and the USA on nuclear programs. The Russian leadership were "truly committed" in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Gobachev said, suggesting that the difference was in approach....

From his posh Presidio perch in misty San Francisco, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was yesterday warning the Kremlin against being hasty in burying the embalmed body of his hero, Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin. The nation, he claimed, wasn't yet ready for such a move.

MOSCOW (AP) - Former President Mikhail Gorbachev warned the Kremlin against quickly burying the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, saying the nation isn't ready yet such a move, a news agency reported Tuesday. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its 1991 collapse, said that Lenin's body eventually should be laid to rest at a proper moment in line with his own will, but added that "this moment has not come yet," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. In what appeared to be the Kremlin's attempt to gauge public reaction to the divisive issue, Georgy Poltavchenko, a...

For the greater part of the 20th century, Russia's population suffered from the nightmare of wars, repression and perpetual hunger. There was the famine of the Civil War, the famine of the years of collectivization, and the famine of [WWII]. It almost seems as if the relative prosperity of recent years has engendered a peculiar reaction of the flesh, something almost akin to gratitude. All across the country, a plethora of beautiful girls has sprung up. ...They are highly educated, and have plunged rapturously into the ocean of literature now being published in Russia.... Each knows several languages.... "A chicken's...

Indian people named after famous Soviet Union-era Russians are to meet up in a village called Moscow. Communist influence is the main reasons for the popularity of Russian names in the state of Kerala. They first met up a few months ago when Lenin shook hands with Krushchev, Stalin hugged Gorbachev and Tereshkova patted Svetlana. The gathering, at the Russian Cultural Centre in Pathanamthitta, also included two Gagarins, seven Lenins, six Stalins and two Brezhnevs. Rathish C Nair, a spokesman for the Russian Cultural Centre said: "With the demise of the Soviet Union, the trend of naming new borns after...

Shaking Loose A review of Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended by Jack F. Matlock, Jr. By Derek Leebaert Posted June 23, 2005 Even today it is widely believed that the unraveling of Communism was due to the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet party boss; that only marginally, if at all, did the evil empire's collapse result from revitalized U.S. resistance. Many supposed experts still hesitate to write of America's victory in the greatest geopolitical drama of the last two generations. As America enters another era neither fully at war nor at peace, we ought to recall...

Green TheologyAustin Ruse, President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the only Catholic lobbying group at the United Nations in New York, reports that there are a number of troubling groups circling around the UN. One such group is fairly new and as yet little-reported movement called the United Religious Initiative (URI), now active in 58 countries and 33 states in the U.S. It has been described as "an exclusive, decentralized organization, a spiritual partner of the United Nations." URI positions support population control, environmental extremism, and are radical on sexual matters. A new document signed by URI's...

Breaking on Fox UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. procurement official who has been at the center of a FOX News investigation into a possible conflict of interest involving his son has quit his job, officials at the United Nations confirmed Wednesday. On Monday, the United Nations announced it was going to into whether procurement officer Alexander Yakovlev (search) violated conflict-of-interest rules. But the U.N. decision did more than draw attention to the man's possible wrongdoing — it also raised questions about how the world body investigates itself.

"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives." --Samuel Johnson RONALD WILSON REAGAN, 1911 - 2004 "And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for young people -- is that you will love your country, not for her...

It is not often that a young person can connect with the personal side of the President of the United States, but John Barletta’s new book, Riding With Reagan, allowed me to do just that better than any other book I have ever read about President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was elected one year before I was born. Some of my earliest memories include watching Reagan on the evening news with my mother. Because I was so young, I had no way to understand the profound impact this man was having on our country and our world. But there was so...

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to dominate the world could end in disaster, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's last leader who launched an era of cooperation with the United States that ended the Cold War, said on Monday. A critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Gorbachev called for the rapid withdrawal of what he called occupation forces, warning: "The longer they stay, the worse the situation will get. "You cannot get anywhere ... by trying to dominate," he told a meeting marking the 20th anniversary of his 1985 Geneva summit with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a turning...

It's time to put an end to this nonsense that Mikhail Gorbachev is now a U.S. citizen. It started in an article by Judi McLeod titled "Gorbachev comes out" from the "Canadian Free Press", posted here, which stated - "Gorbachev, now a citizen of the United States of America, used the occasion to boast to reporters." However, the link to the original article now publishes the sentence as - "Gorbachev, now a resident of the United States of America, used the occasion to boast to reporters." Apparently, CFP recognized the obvious error and quietly modified the article without publishing a...

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has appealed at the United Nations for an international treaty guaranteeing access to clean water for all. Mr. Gorbachev also lashed out at the United States on the issue of nuclear weapons. He came to the United Nations this week to press world leaders to declare access to drinking water a basic human right. Speaking at a U.N. conference on water and sanitation, Mr. Gorbachev called for adoption of an international water treaty during the September world summit in New York. "Ratification of such a convention by members of the United Nations would give...

The United States has come in for strong criticism from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev for advising other countries against acquiring nuclear weapons while refusing to destroy its own arsenal. In his first public appearance at the UN since his historic "glasnost" address to the General Assembly in 1988, Gorbachev said the United States was "hypocritical" over nuclear armaments and not prepared to eliminate its own such arms. "I think Russia is ready to cooperate. Now the question is, is the United States -- the only remaining superpower -- ready to do this? I think not myself," he said at...

Gorbachev wants a new world order Brady McCombs April 15, 2005 FORT COLLINS -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev told a sold-out crowd at Moby Arena on Thursday that world leaders should focus on establishing a new world order that is more stable, just and humane. The ex-president of the former Soviet Union said the world shouldn't have such high levels of poverty and such a wide gap between the rich and the poor when superpowers such as the United States enjoy comfortable lifestyles. "The priority should be given to all mankind," Gorbachev said through a translator. About 9,155...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Mikhail Gorbachev is pressing world leaders to adopt a treaty guaranteeing clean water and sanitation for their people, a task he says is more daunting than ending the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. Dwindling water supplies and political resistance have hampered efforts to bring fresh water to poor people around the world, the former Soviet leader said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. "We were able to solve the nuclear arms race because of ... political will," he said before an awards banquet held by his American environmental group, Global Green USA....

The history-making global outpouring of love and respect for Pope John Paul II had the legions of the left singing the blues last week. It’s not just that world attention was focused on St. Peter’s Square, it was that millions flocked to the precedent-setting farewell to the Pope of the People. April 8, 2005 was televised proof that the global secular mission is not only failing–but also failing abysmally. "You can come out now," could be the post pope funeral message to the anti-Christian, dying-with-dignity depopulation movement. Four days after Pope John Paul II’s funeral, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

RFE/RL correspondent Irina Lagunina speaks with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev about the legacy of Pope John Paul II. RFE/RL: There was one Soviet leader who met with Pope John Paul II, who sought out and received an audience -- Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the Soviet Union. The audience took place in 1989. Mikhail Sergeevich, you were the first Soviet leader to meet with Pope John Paul II. Why did you decide at that time to request an audience?

BNP Paribas, the bank associated with the Oil-for-Food scandal, is doing brisk business in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s golden state. According to its website, "BNP Paribas acts as the sole agent for the State of California’s economic recovery bonds, the largest municipal bond sale in the United States." Active in the municipal bond market for over 10 years, BNP is providing credit enhancement and liquidity support for the State of California’s sale of $2.97 billion of variable-rate Economic Recovery Bonds ("ERB’s"). The bank also boasts that it will be a proud partner of San Francisco in financing the rebuilding of the...