[Presenter Aytan Safarova, over archive footage of Gorbachev] The former president of the former USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, has commented on accusations that he is to blame for the Baku events of 20 January 1990 and that a lawsuit was filed against him in this regard.
Gorbachev believes that before the troops arrived in Baku, the [Azerbaijani]
Supreme Soviet and other political bodies were paralysed, dozens of people had fallen victim to extremists, power had been toppled by force in some regions, the 200-kilometre section of the USSR's border [with Iran] had been
destroyed and a state of emergency had been declared to prevent arbitrariness and robbery.
Gorbachev admits that the events of 20 January 1990 were a tragedy. However,
Gorbachev believes that the measures taken in the prevalent conditions of the time prevented greater dangers.