In March, Mikhail Gorbachev will celebrate two dates: his 72nd birthday and the appointment to the post of Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee 54 years later. Neither age, nor political "scrapes" would force him to spend retirement years in tranquility. In the fall, Gorbachev, who leads nowadays the Social-Democratic Party, intends to join the political race for the seats in the RF State Duma. However, at present, his major concern is the situation around Iraq.
Question: What would you do if you were in President Putin's shoes today? Would you give up on Saddam Hussein or would you defend him risking alienating the United States?
Answer: So far, Putin has been acting correctly. Frankly, there are no substantial arguments in favor of the war against Iraq! The president is trying to avoid the confrontation with the USA and, at the same time, to let the Americans know that they are putting themselves and us into a corner.
I recall the speeches made by US President Kennedy during the Cuban crisis. The Americans hated Castro at that time as much as they do hate Hussein nowadays. Nevertheless, Kennedy was smart enough not to get involved in the nuclear standoff. He used to tell the warmongers in the Administration - if you think that the future peace will be only for America, you are dead wrong. It's either we will have the universal peace, or no peace at all.
Question: What's behind the Iraqi crisis? The struggle for "big oil"?
Answer: The roots of such policy are in the very nature of American society. It's the disease of any advanced consumer society. In order to provide high living standards for the Americans at the level they got used to, the United States, while accounting for 5 percent of the global population, has to consume 42 percent of global energy supplies (!) It's a monster that's ready to devour everything around.
Question: If the war is inevitable, wouldn't it be better to let the United States do as it wants in exchange for the guarantees of respecting our interests in Iraq? Or do you think the Americans couldn't be trusted?
Answer: The American politicians suffer from two mental complexes. First - every president should have his own war. And second - they sure could "cheat" on us. They are very cynical and hypocritical politicians, despite their claims that they are true Christians.
Question: Nevertheless, it seems that we are ready to give away "the last shirt." Didn't Russia yield its positions too easily? After all, we eagerly let the Americans build military bases in Central Asia, agreed on NATO expansion.
Answer: Those are direct consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin inherited chaos in the country. We didn't have any viable foreign and defense policy at the time. The Russian Federation was torn by regional feudalism; it was literally falling apart. What would any president be concerned about in such circumstances? First of all, about preserving the people, the nation. Our greatness will always depend on our ability to build stable society and economy within the country. Without accomplishing this fundamental task, we can't talk seriously about Russian role in geopolitics.
Besides, NATO expansion is not really a big deal nowadays - the times have changed. Presently, Russia has not only the right to voice its opinion on at least 10 positions (and I believe those are major ones) on NATO's agenda, but also participate in making decisions. NATO is not the same as it used to be.
Question: There is a common opinion that the larger NATO is, the harder this organization will be to govern.
Answer: I share this opinion. I think that there are limits to the expansion of the European Union, as well. They'll never be able to "digest" Russia - their stomach is too small for that. That's why I proposed the concept of Russia's integration into the EU as an associate member. Russia's relationship with NATO is a good example - we would have the right to participate in making key decisions, but other than that both sides would have relative freedom to act on their own while implementing those decisions. We have to create a common economic and cultural space, get regulatory legislation in different countries more universal. Look at what's happening in terms of trade restrictions for Russia in Europe. It's appalling! The EU introduced more than 60 anti-dumping processes against Russia. Meanwhile everybody is shouting in euphoria - ah, it's time to turn a new page in our relations with Russia!
Question: Does this mean that Europe is also "cheating" on us? Some people believe that Putin follows Gorbachev's path while yielding to the West in exchange for vague promises of friendship. It's not a secret that you are still being accused of the fact that the Soviet Union didn't gain anything from the unification of Germany or the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty.
Answer: It's a cliche invented by journalists. We introduced democratic elections and reforms in Russia, allowed the freedom of thought in our country. Meanwhile, did we have the right to crush the same processes in the Czech Republic, Poland and the German Democratic Republic with tanks? As early as June of 1989, during my visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, Kohl and I agreed that the future of Germany was in its unification. The Berlin Wall collapsed the following autumn. I went to attend the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic and saw a huge manifestation - about a million people from all regions. I remember their slogans. I understood that the regime could no longer serve the country. People were leaving the country in crowds. In January of 1990, the population of the GDR, thousands upon thousands of people, went in the streets with a single demand - to allow the unification of Germany immediately. Do you think we should have ordered our contingent in Germany to use force against innocent people? No, we decided to go the way of negotiations with other countries of the coalition that won the war. We bargained only for the conditions of further presence or withdrawal of troops, assuring aid in building alternative housing for military personnel.
Question: Wasn't the West ready to forgive Soviet debts in exchange for letting Germany go?
Answer: That's not true. The Soviet Union owed the majority of debts to private investors, and those never forget about the money.
Some people also question the fact that in official documents of the period we never introduced a clause preventing the future expansion of NATO. They should be realistic - in the circumstances when the Warsaw Treaty still existed (it was disbanded only a year later), there was no way to put forward assumptions that NATO would certainly conduct aggressive policy aimed at further expansion. We would have had a war at our hands in that case. Everything had been decided by that time. And I don't think I was cheated upon or failed to get everything possible from the other side.