Mikhail Gorbachev Slams Vladimir Putin for Subverting Russian Democracy

Source: Yahoo News

Mark Whittington – Tue Feb 22, 1:43pm ET

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union, attacked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for grabbing political power and robbing the Russian people of their Democratic choice.

Gorbachev's complaint revolves around a plan for Putin and current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to decide who will be permitted to run for president of Russia in next year's elections. "This is not Putin's business. It is the business of the nation. It is the business of elections. It is the business of those who will vote," he said.

The spectacle of Gorbachev as defender of Russian democracy is a curious one, to say the least. Gorbachev rose in the somewhat insular political culture of the Soviet Union that did not encourage such concepts as democracy and free elections. When he became General Secretary of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, it was not through the free vote of the people.

It is true that Mikhail Gorbachev instituted certain reforms that eventually helped to lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of Communist rule in an empire that once stretched from the Elbe River to the Pacific. When Gorbachev was the leader of this empire, his purpose was hardly to institute western style democracy. It was to make the Communist system run smoother, more efficiently, and more responsively. Gorbachev wanted a kinder and gentler Soviet Union. But the dynamics of a revolution of rising expectations brought down the Soviet Union, fulfilling the prophecy of Ronald Reagan that the "evil empire" would be consigned to the ash heap of history.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110222/us_ac/7916944_mikhail_gorbachev_slams_vladimir_putin_for_subverting_russian_democracy

...but unfortunately, he's usually a decade too late.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/21/uk-russia-gorbachev-idUKTRE71K42820110221

Gorbachev finally speaks up. I wish that he had more sway in Russia these days.

guy the old system could come up with: a slow moving intellectual who wanted what was best, or someone like Yeltsin, a populist who immediately did what he thought was right.

Gorbachev should announce that the country should never got back, but should not stay the same as it is now, that new leaders are necessary about every 10 years to avoid corruption and entrenchment.

....hey gorby, why did you sell Soviet Union out to the West for two cent on the ruble?....bush and kohl bought you cheap....the world has become a shittier place now that there are no limits on global capitalism....gorby, you could have cut a better deal....

"...It is the business of the nation. It is the business of elections. It is the business of those who will vote,"

....I'm not sure I would trust your 'business' skills if I were Russian....

Gorbachev was gone in '91 before the real looting started.

still open his pile hole?

In Russia he enjoys support at 0.2% and rightfully so.
Selling the country to the shitter and still yapping about it 20 years later.