>How quickly one forgets the rapaciousness of the ruling class when
>sheltered
>from it for a while. Still, is he really this disingenuous? I guess there
>are plenty of progressives here who live these same illusions and are
>forever
>in state of surprise. Gorbachev was here a couple of years ago speaking
>for
>a fabulous fee ($80,000 I think) and a friend asked him how he feels now
>about the terrible conditions in Russia, the dropping lifespan, the
>unemployment, the gangsters. He said things were fine when he left office.
>
>Jenny Brown
Next to the Yeltsin era, the late Soviet ruling clique was practically composed of unpaid orphanage volunteer workers. When Gorby left office, there was no unemployment, no gangsters in the Western or post-Soviet sense (there was the black market, but that's something else) and life expectancy was declining (I think) but certainly not plummeting. (For personal and political reasons, Gorby tends to blame Yeltsin for everything, BTW. He hates Yeltsin's guts -- but then, who in Russia doesn't hate Yeltsin's guts?) I think what happened post-1991 was a real shock to him.
I think the majority of the money gained from G's speaking appearances in the West goes to financing the Green Cross International and the Social Democratic Party of Russia. He certainly can't get much money speaking in Russia, 'cause no one likes him enough to pay a lot. (I think almost all of the $5 million from the Pizza Hut ad went to the GCI.)
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