In Russia And The Former Soviet States Gorbachev Has A Complicated Legacy

Comment Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent his 22 years in power relentlessly destroying the legacy of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two met rarely and Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday in Moscow at the age of 91, was careful to voice his remarks about the Russian leader, even when they were not critical. Unlike Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin, Gorbachev never sought or received a guarantee of immunity from arrest or prosecution, he said. Gorbachev’s criticism of Putin was often indirect, as in his 2015 book The New Russia, in which he wrote that Putin had “exploited” a flawed constitution drafted under Yeltsin’s watch — for example, by using an inaccurate term limits provision to return to the presidency in 2012. “The great flaw of the constitution … was its ‘super-presidential character,’” wrote Gorbachev. “Combined with our monarchical tradition and the pious attitude towards higher authority typical of the Russian national character, this presented a real danger of creating an authoritarian regime.” Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union a disaster and despised Gorbachev’s legacy, but nevertheless avoided personally prosecuting Gorbachev and almost never mentioned him—an adjustment that perhaps reflects Putin’s own display of this national character . Asked in 2011 what he would do in Gorbachev’s place as the Soviet Union dissolved, Putin said Russia should “fight for the territorial integrity of our state consistently, persistently and fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand.” Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, dies aged 91 In Putin’s condolence cable to Gorbachev’s family and friends, his attitude was conveyed in what he did not say, analysts said. He did not praise Gorbachev’s larger reforms, noting only that the Soviet leader understood the need for change and “tried to bring his own social reforms to our urgent problems.” Putin’s disdain for Gorbachev and apparent ambivalence about his death underscore a stark divide in world opinion. While Gorbachev is revered in the West for helping to tear down the Iron Curtain and give democracy a chance, many in the former Soviet Union hate him for the chaos and deprivation that followed in the 1990s — turmoil that, in some ways, it continues even now. Gorbachev initially welcomed Putin’s presidency but called his third term in 2012 a “mistake”. In 2013, he said that Russian politics was turning into an “imitation of democracy”, with corruption rampant. In 2016, he called Putin’s policies “an obstacle to progress.” But it is Putin’s vision of a revanchist, imperialist Russia that won. Like most Russians, Gorbachev supported Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Gorbachev, who was in poor health, called for an end to hostilities, saying that “there is no nothing more precious in the world than man. he lives.” Alexei Venediktov, a prominent liberal media personality who spoke to Gorbachev by phone in July, said at the time that the former Soviet leader opposed the war and knew that Putin had abandoned his reforms for free speech and transparency. into ashes. “I can tell you that Gorbachev is upset,” Venediktov told Russia’s Forbes magazine. “Freedom is Gorbachev’s life’s work.” The Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday that there would be no state funeral, a stunning snub for a former head of state. Gorbachev’s daughter said a memorial service would be held at the old House of Soviet Union, in a ceremonial hall known as Pillars Hall. Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the denial of a state funeral would send a message that “we are really living in a completely new and different period of history that annihilates and cleans up all the achievements of the Gorbachev period. “ As leader, Putin crushed the media and civil society, returned to totalitarianism, installed former KGB and other security officials in key positions, destroyed non-governmental organizations, invaded Ukraine and isolated Russia from the West. Gorbachev famously appeared in Pizza Hut commercials. The first McDonald’s opened in Moscow’s Pushkin Square under Gorbachev. More than 30 years later, under Putin, McDonald’s and other Western companies have abandoned or suspended operations. Gorbachev’s reforms promoted free speech, truth-telling and “glasnost,” or transparency, allowing the emergence of new media — policies reversed by Putin and the hard-liners in his circle. Under Putin, corruption became more entrenched, but he capitalized on high oil prices to stabilize the economy while curbing independent oligarchs. Gorbachev praised Putin’s economic record since the early 2000s, but also expressed concern about a conflict between Putin’s government and Vladimir Gushinsky, a Russian media magnate and founder of NTV, Russia’s first private television station after the Soviet collapse. Gusinski was arrested and forced to sell his media. How Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut ad came to be — and why it still reflects his legacy Among Russians, Putin is not alone in his view of Gorbachev. Communists and hardliners consider Gorbachev a traitor for allowing Eastern European countries to break free from Soviet control and for presiding over the dissolution of the Communist Party in 1991. Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, said the fact that Putin had ignored Gorbachev as a public figure over the years symbolized how much the Russian leader was trying to undo Gorbachev’s legacy of giving people a say in future of their country. . “Putin has increasingly built his public legitimacy on the back of nostalgia … for the Soviet Union,” Green said. “This is somewhat of a myth. It speaks of pride and power but ignores the reality of the problems and dysfunction that Gorbachev came to power to address.” The Kremlin on Wednesday focused on Gorbachev’s role as a powerful state leader who brought about historic change — and who would be remembered for better or worse. “A politician who will remain forever in the history of our country — many disagree about the role he played,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Gorbachev had mistakenly hoped “it would begin an eternal romantic period between the new Soviet Union and the West. “There was no romantic honeymoon,” Peskov said. “The bloodthirstiness of our opponents showed.” Kremlin propagandists portrayed Gorbachev’s death, as they now face all major events, through the lens of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which is portrayed as Putin’s attempt to defend Russia from NATO and rebuild it as great world power. State TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva said Western admiration for Gorbachev was unfounded. Skabeyeva praised Chinese state media, which she said “highlighted the naivety and immaturity of Gorbachev, whose allegiance to the West plunged the country into an era of economic and political instability.” Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov said Gorbachev and others were “responsible for the tragedy of Russia’s collapse.” Referring to the war against Ukraine, Markov said: “Now the special military operation is bringing Russia together again.” Mark Galeotti, director of consulting firm Mayak Intelligence, said Gorbachev’s image was undone by the central element of Kremlin propaganda: that Putin had rescued Russia from the 1990s, which was portrayed as “an immeasurable landscape of anarchy, collapse and of national humiliation”. “The conventional wisdom became that Gorbachev was kind of a failure,” Galeotti said. “Who was there to support him, to be perfectly honest?” He noted that while Gorbachev supported the annexation of Crimea, he also disputed the recent election results and implicitly criticized Putin. “Generally, whenever Gorbachev talked about the need to prevent some kind of global catastrophe and world war, he was implicitly challenging Putin, who is a man for whom a little provocation goes a long way,” Galeotti said. “And so, I think there’s starting to be a kind of more concrete effort to demonize Gorbachev as not being patriotic enough.“ Faced with Putin’s wartime censorship, a Nobel laureate struggles to keep the truth alive in Russia Dmitri Muratov, editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Gorbachev helped found in 1993, wrote in a memoir that Gorbachev was essentially a man of peace. “He despised war. He despised realpolitik,” wrote Muratov, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. “He was sure that the time had passed to solve world order issues by force. He believed in the choice of nations. He freed political prisoners, stopped the war in Afghanistan and the nuclear arms race. He told me he refused to push the nuke button even in training!” Muratov, whose paper was closed in the spring in response to Putin’s crackdown on the media after the invasion of Ukraine, added: “He did not consider killing a virtue.” Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.

War in Ukraine: What you need to know

The last: Grain shipments from Ukraine are being accelerated under the agreement reached by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports had sent food prices skyrocketing and raised fears of more famine in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including cargoes of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed. The battle: The conflict on the ground continues as Russia uses its heavy artillery advantage to pound Ukrainian forces, which have at times managed to put up stiff resistance. In the south, Ukraine’s hopes rest on the liberation of the Russian-held Kherson region, and eventually Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. Fears…

title: “In Russia And The Former Soviet States Gorbachev Has A Complicated Legacy Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-01” author: “Stephanie Cotton”

Comment Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent his 22 years in power relentlessly destroying the legacy of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two met rarely and Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday in Moscow at the age of 91, was careful to voice his remarks about the Russian leader, even when they were not critical. Unlike Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin, Gorbachev never sought or received a guarantee of immunity from arrest or prosecution, he said. Gorbachev’s criticism of Putin was often indirect, as in his 2015 book The New Russia, in which he wrote that Putin had “exploited” a flawed constitution drafted under Yeltsin’s watch — for example, by using an inaccurate term limits provision to return to the presidency in 2012. “The great flaw of the constitution … was its ‘super-presidential character,’” wrote Gorbachev. “Combined with our monarchical tradition and the pious attitude towards higher authority typical of the Russian national character, this presented a real danger of creating an authoritarian regime.” Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union a disaster and despised Gorbachev’s legacy, but nevertheless avoided personally prosecuting Gorbachev and almost never mentioned him—an adjustment that perhaps reflects Putin’s own display of this national character . Asked in 2011 what he would do in Gorbachev’s place as the Soviet Union dissolved, Putin said Russia should “fight for the territorial integrity of our state consistently, persistently and fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand.” Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, dies aged 91 In Putin’s condolence cable to Gorbachev’s family and friends, his attitude was conveyed in what he did not say, analysts said. He did not praise Gorbachev’s larger reforms, noting only that the Soviet leader understood the need for change and “tried to bring his own social reforms to our urgent problems.” Putin’s disdain for Gorbachev and apparent ambivalence about his death underscore a stark divide in world opinion. While Gorbachev is revered in the West for helping to tear down the Iron Curtain and give democracy a chance, many in the former Soviet Union hate him for the chaos and deprivation that followed in the 1990s — turmoil that, in some ways, it continues even now. Gorbachev initially welcomed Putin’s presidency but called his third term in 2012 a “mistake”. In 2013, he said that Russian politics was turning into an “imitation of democracy”, with corruption rampant. In 2016, he called Putin’s policies “an obstacle to progress.” But it is Putin’s vision of a revanchist, imperialist Russia that won. Like most Russians, Gorbachev supported Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Gorbachev, who was in poor health, called for an end to hostilities, saying that “there is no nothing more precious in the world than man. he lives.” Alexei Venediktov, a prominent liberal media personality who spoke to Gorbachev by phone in July, said at the time that the former Soviet leader opposed the war and knew that Putin had abandoned his reforms for free speech and transparency. into ashes. “I can tell you that Gorbachev is upset,” Venediktov told Russia’s Forbes magazine. “Freedom is Gorbachev’s life’s work.” The Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday that there would be no state funeral, a stunning snub for a former head of state. Gorbachev’s daughter said a memorial service would be held at the old House of Soviet Union, in a ceremonial hall known as Pillars Hall. Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the denial of a state funeral would send a message that “we are really living in a completely new and different period of history that annihilates and cleans up all the achievements of the Gorbachev period. “ As leader, Putin crushed the media and civil society, returned to totalitarianism, installed former KGB and other security officials in key positions, destroyed non-governmental organizations, invaded Ukraine and isolated Russia from the West. Gorbachev famously appeared in Pizza Hut commercials. The first McDonald’s opened in Moscow’s Pushkin Square under Gorbachev. More than 30 years later, under Putin, McDonald’s and other Western companies have abandoned or suspended operations. Gorbachev’s reforms promoted free speech, truth-telling and “glasnost,” or transparency, allowing the emergence of new media — policies reversed by Putin and the hard-liners in his circle. Under Putin, corruption became more entrenched, but he capitalized on high oil prices to stabilize the economy while curbing independent oligarchs. Gorbachev praised Putin’s economic record since the early 2000s, but also expressed concern about a conflict between Putin’s government and Vladimir Gushinsky, a Russian media magnate and founder of NTV, Russia’s first private television station after the Soviet collapse. Gusinski was arrested and forced to sell his media. How Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut ad came to be — and why it still reflects his legacy Among Russians, Putin is not alone in his view of Gorbachev. Communists and hardliners consider Gorbachev a traitor for allowing Eastern European countries to break free from Soviet control and for presiding over the dissolution of the Communist Party in 1991. Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, said the fact that Putin had ignored Gorbachev as a public figure over the years symbolized how much the Russian leader was trying to undo Gorbachev’s legacy of giving people a say in future of their country. . “Putin has increasingly built his public legitimacy on the back of nostalgia … for the Soviet Union,” Green said. “This is somewhat of a myth. It speaks of pride and power but ignores the reality of the problems and dysfunction that Gorbachev came to power to address.” The Kremlin on Wednesday focused on Gorbachev’s role as a powerful state leader who brought about historic change — and who would be remembered for better or worse. “A politician who will remain forever in the history of our country — many disagree about the role he played,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Gorbachev had mistakenly hoped “it would begin an eternal romantic period between the new Soviet Union and the West. “There was no romantic honeymoon,” Peskov said. “The bloodthirstiness of our opponents showed.” Kremlin propagandists portrayed Gorbachev’s death, as they now face all major events, through the lens of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which is portrayed as Putin’s attempt to defend Russia from NATO and rebuild it as great world power. State TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva said Western admiration for Gorbachev was unfounded. Skabeyeva praised Chinese state media, which she said “highlighted the naivety and immaturity of Gorbachev, whose allegiance to the West plunged the country into an era of economic and political instability.” Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov said Gorbachev and others were “responsible for the tragedy of Russia’s collapse.” Referring to the war against Ukraine, Markov said: “Now the special military operation is bringing Russia together again.” Mark Galeotti, director of consulting firm Mayak Intelligence, said Gorbachev’s image was undone by the central element of Kremlin propaganda: that Putin had rescued Russia from the 1990s, which was portrayed as “an immeasurable landscape of anarchy, collapse and of national humiliation”. “The conventional wisdom became that Gorbachev was kind of a failure,” Galeotti said. “Who was there to support him, to be perfectly honest?” He noted that while Gorbachev supported the annexation of Crimea, he also disputed the recent election results and implicitly criticized Putin. “Generally, whenever Gorbachev talked about the need to prevent some kind of global catastrophe and world war, he was implicitly challenging Putin, who is a man for whom a little provocation goes a long way,” Galeotti said. “And so, I think there’s starting to be a kind of more concrete effort to demonize Gorbachev as not being patriotic enough.“ Faced with Putin’s wartime censorship, a Nobel laureate struggles to keep the truth alive in Russia Dmitri Muratov, editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Gorbachev helped found in 1993, wrote in a memoir that Gorbachev was essentially a man of peace. “He despised war. He despised realpolitik,” wrote Muratov, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. “He was sure that the time had passed to solve world order issues by force. He believed in the choice of nations. He freed political prisoners, stopped the war in Afghanistan and the nuclear arms race. He told me he refused to push the nuke button even in training!” Muratov, whose paper was closed in the spring in response to Putin’s crackdown on the media after the invasion of Ukraine, added: “He did not consider killing a virtue.” Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.

War in Ukraine: What you need to know

The last: Grain shipments from Ukraine are being accelerated under the agreement reached by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports had sent food prices skyrocketing and raised fears of more famine in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including cargoes of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed. The battle: The conflict on the ground continues as Russia uses its heavy artillery advantage to pound Ukrainian forces, which have at times managed to put up stiff resistance. In the south, Ukraine’s hopes rest on the liberation of the Russian-held Kherson region, and eventually Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. Fears…