Chris Doss The Russia Journal ----------------------
Bridget Kendall: We've had quite a lot of people who want to know your opinion about Vladimir Putin. Rikke Ishшy, Copenhagen Denmark: How do you view Putin's Presidency, taking into account, what appears to be, his restrictions on freedom of speech and other fundamental democratic rights?
Mikhail Gorbachev: When young people ask this question I welcome it. But when the accusations against Putin are made against Putin I know it's not honest - it's a political game - why? You can get freedom today but it doesn't mean that you will be free tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Russia is in a transitory state to a democratic country - democratic structures are being established - new personalities are emerging - new mentalities are emerging. When we began Perestroika 90% of the people in the Soviet Union were those who were born under Soviet rule - they don't know any other forms of life. You think that in one week, one year - even five years - can it be done just like that? This is why I said that Perestroika is an evolutionary process. It's a matter to be done one - two generations.
I've just spoken to Helmut Kohl on the 4th March. He is here in Moscow. We were talking about changing. He said that the German nation speaks one language but it feels like after the collapse of the Berlin Wall two nations met one another. Over 40 years a different mentality had been formed and integration wasn't going very smoothly. And Russia from one serfdom and then Communist serfdom. And altogether if you ask Putin - of course he would like to democracy already today like in the USA, Britain, Germany but can you tell me who can do that? Well let him be a president then - nobody will be able to do it. Society has to suffer to get a new democratic society. This is why things happen in this transformation period. Some things happen and I cannot justify him then but altogether his policy when he is working and doing things in the interests of the majority of people, he is continuing the reforms. He is reforming the army.
There were cases and I spoke about them - for example, the Kursk submarine. He should have reacted earlier and he should have announced his position earlier and later he had to make a lot of efforts not to let his position slip. People are having a hard life in Russia. But they consider the President is doing the right thing but changes do not come easy. Many people do not want it to happen - even just to preserve the status quo sometimes authoritarian methods have to be applied. But when I spoke in France, I said sometimes authoritarian methods are needed even in democratic countries it happens. But will it not happen that this separate cases will emerge into an authoritarian regime and he just burst out then - if they were here in this country, in this chaos, they would understand that things are not solved so easily. That sometimes far from democratic measures have to be taken.
But nevertheless I think that this person represents a new generation. Over the past three years he grew into a mature politician. He is understood by ordinary people. His rating remains very high. This is his biggest resource and this is why he succeeds. Before we didn't have a federation, we had a feudal regionalism. Now the constitution begins to work - the mechanisms begin to work - everything is just beginning. Time is needed - I think that he'll have time.