Still breaking, so not much in the link yet. Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev dies at 91 Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev dies at 91
Cool guy, one of the few world leaders proud enough of his country to tattoo its map on His forehead.
I would not make fun of him, a brave man that recognized the farce of Russian "communism" and its destructive nature to the peoples populating the former Soviet Union. Lesser men would have chosen catastrophic violence, nuclear war, to preserve a regime that was nothing like the communist ideology they professed to practice and was nothing more than a group of power possessed totalitarians that used coercion and a police state to suppress its citizens.
I found it interesting that after the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev set up his foundation for democracy in San Francisco at the Presidio US Army installation.
I’m truly surprised he wasn’t killed in the (failed) August 1991 coup. The conspirators had every opportunity to do it. That’s usually the first step when seeking to install a new government: don’t leave the face of the opposition alive to contest you.
Despite his human failings, (alcoholism) being just one of many, I consider him to be a great man, a man that history has not properly acknowledged and which is properly due.
I did not know alcoholism was an issue for Gorbachev. Are you sure you’re not mixing him up with Boris Yeltsin?
Once again you caught me in error - Apologies to Mr Gorbachev, in fact he is notorious in Russian Society for his ANTI-DRINKING campaign. Good catch! You are certainly correct about Boris, he did have a reputation for turning the jug "up".
I have a hard time imagining Gorbachev invading Ukraine like Putin did. I realize we are in a different world now, but still....
The “opportunity” ended up being a country raped. I would recommend the Book “Red Notice” to anyone who is interested in the shift of wealth to the favored on Russia.
Czar Putin, whom called the fall of the Soviet Union "The greatest tragedy of the 20th century" is certainly trying to "resurrect" the old order. His "farce" of representative Gov't, in which he has been the totalitarian leader for decades now fools no one. The conflict in Ukraine has become the focal point of the power struggle between Western Democracies and totalitarian regimes. A Ukranian officer, on NPR this morning, called it "the ideological battleground" as to the direction of future struggle between the conflicting concepts of Western Democracy and Totalitarianism. it is damn discouraging that Trump, Fox News (Tucker Carlson), and GOP operatives have provided overt support for Putin and his form of "Gov't". The plague of Republican totalitarian "sympathy" which reared it's ugly head under Donald Trump will HOPEFULLY be recognized by CONSERVATIVES for exactly what it is and the Republican Party will return to the standard of what it used to be - the expansion of Democracy, Free Trade, and Individual Freedom for all the Worlds Citizens. A HELLEVA LOT of American BLOOD was SHED in confllicts post WW2 for exactly those goals and I hope Republicans wake up to the fact that a significant portion of the party has gone bat shit crazy and has, and continues to, commit TREASON against the very "flag" they fly in the back of their pickup trucks. Time to WAKE UP!
