Pavel Palazhchenko worked as an interpreter for the former Soviet leader for 37 years and had spoken to him on the phone just weeks before he died on August 30. A staunch critic of Vladimir Putin, Mr Palazhchenko said his former boss had been upset by the Kremlin’s deteriorating relationship with Kyiv. Speaking to Reuters, he said: “It’s not just the operation that started on February 24, but the whole development of relations between Russia and Ukraine over the last few years was really, really a big blow to him. “It really crushed him emotionally and psychologically. “It was very clear to us in our conversations with him that he was shocked and bewildered by what was happening for all kinds of reasons. “He believed not only in the closeness of the Russian and Ukrainian people, he believed that these two nations were mixed.”
More about Mikhail Gorbachev
The Kremlin announced on Thursday that Putin would not attend Mr Gorbachev’s funeral due to conflicts in his “work schedule”. Image: Vladimir Putin pays tribute to Mr Gorbachev at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital She was photographed laying flowers on the late president’s open casket on Thursday. Having eased tensions with the United States and credited with helping to end the Cold War, Mr. Gorbachev’s foreign policy strategy was almost the opposite of Mr. Putin’s. The late leader supported an anti-Putin protest movement that followed the rigged 2011 election. Mr Gorbachev also criticized Mr Putin’s decision to return to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012. The current president hit back by accusing the former Soviet president of “relinquishing” power. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 9:33 Gorbachev’s life and legacy A year later, Mr. Gorbachev said of Russia and Mr. Putin: “Politics is increasingly turning into an imitation of democracy. All power is in the hands of the authorities and the president. “The economy is monopolistic. Corruption has reached colossal proportions.” Image: Mr. Pavel Palazhchenko with his memoirs from his years with Mr. Gorbachev in 1997 Gorbachev-Ukraine relations are complicated by views on Crimea Although seemingly disgusted by the war, Mr. Gorbachev’s relationship with Ukraine was anything but simple. In 2016 Kyiv banned him after he told the Sunday Times he would have done the same as Mr Putin in the illegal annexation of Crimea. He told the newspaper: “I am always with the free will of the people and most people in Crimea want to be reunited with Russia.” Mr Palazhchenko, who at 73 was in regular contact with Gorbachev and his daughter Irina, said relations were made difficult by the fact that he still believed in the Soviet Union – despite its collapse in 1991. “Of course at the heart of it the kind of mental map for him and for most people of his political generation is still a kind of imaginary country that includes most of the former Soviet Union,” he said. But asked if Mr Gorbachev would have invaded Ukraine, he replied: “Of course I can’t imagine him saying ‘this is it and I will do everything to enforce it’, no.”
