I love the comment on Yeltsin: "[Gorbachev] ... I could have sent him to a diplomatic post to drink hard alcohol, and it would be over with him soon though he was physically strong."
Man, that's stone cold! ;)
BBC Monitoring Gorbachev gives exclusive interview to Russian TV Source: Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian 1600 gmt 25 Feb 06
Mikhail Gorbachev gave an interview to the Russian Ren TV television channel on the eve of his 75th birthday on 2 March. He spoke about his dislike for first Russian President Boris Yeltsin and support for incumbent leader Vladimir Putin, criticized the social policy of the Russian government and the current media situation, compared the pro-Kremlin One Russia party to the Soviet Communist party . The following is the text of the interview broadcast on 25 February; subheadings inserted editorially:
[Presenter Marianna Maksimovskaya] According to the results of the latest opinion poll conducted by VTsIOM [All-Russia Centre for Public Opinion Research], Russians are nostalgic about the iron hand. Nearly 60 per cent of those polled believe that the country needs an authoritarian and strong ruler. And not all of them are elderly people, some are young.
What is most astonishing, one in four of those polled has a Big Terror victim among his relatives.
About one-third of those polled named President [Vladimir] Putin as the most successful Russian leader. [Leonid] Brezhnev and [Iosif] Stalin are lagging far behind.
Next week, on 2 March, the man due to whom the country got rid of iron regimes will turn 75. Russia did it with difficulty and some traces are still there, as you see.
We have had a conversation with the first and last president of the USSR and the architect of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, about the forthcoming anniversary and the first and the second presidents of Russia [Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin respectively].
Flowers from Raisa
[Maksimovskaya] Mikhail Sergeyevich, what was the most remarkable birthday gift you ever received?
[Gorbachev] Raisa [Gorbachev] had a tradition of presenting me with violets. Once we happened to be in Los Angeles on my birthday. Nobody could find violets in Los Angeles, though it is an evergreen city with a variety of trees. She said [presumably, to the members of the Soviet presidential team]: Find them, and that's that! They bought several flowerpots, cut the flowers [to make a bouquet], and she presented me her habitual violets. My friends dried some of those violets between the pages of a book, and gave me violets from Raisa on my 70th birthday. She had passed away by then.
[Maksimovskaya] And what disappoints you most on your birthday?
[Gorbachev] That Raisa is not with me. It is very painful. It is an irretrievable loss. Of course, years ease your pain but they can't change the essence. Tomorrow my younger granddaughter and I will visit her grave.
[Maksimovskaya] Whom have you invited to your birthday party? Will there be political figures among the guests?
[Gorbachev] I am inviting those whom I like. Some of them disagree with me, but I like them. For example, [Soviet politburo member and fervent opponent of perestroika] Yegor Kuzmich Ligachev. We broke up with him [politically], but we remained friends. We began the turn together, and did it vigorously.
Dislike for Yeltsin
[Maksimovskaya] Many years have passed, [first president of Russia] Boris Yeltsin retired long ago. Don't you want to invite him to your birthday celebration?
[Gorbachev] No. I have never met him [since December 1991], and I don't want to. He feels the same. Boris Nikolayevich, let's call him with his full name, has failed to rid himself of a base character trait, which is vindictiveness. I forgave many people, including him. I could have sent him to a diplomatic post to drink hard alcohol, and it would be over with him soon though he was physically strong. But I decided that he should stay in Moscow as the man who was the first to challenge the bureaucracy [when he served as a Communist boss of Moscow in 1985-87]. I defended him from attacks at that plenary meeting [of the Communist party Central Committee in November 1987, when Yeltsin was stripped of his party posts for criticizing the slow pace of perestroyka].
[Maksimovskaya] So, is it a personal grudge or a disagreement on matters of principle?
[Gorbachev] I believe that he committed a betrayal by signing the [December 1991] Belovezhskoye agreement [on disbanding of the Soviet Union] behind my back. He betrayed not only myself but the nation. It is an unforgivable act of treason.
[Maksimovskaya] Would you like a broad state celebration of your birthday like that enjoyed by Boris Yeltsin [on 1 February 2006]?
[Gorbachev] Why would I? It would never occur to me to ask for the Kremlin to be given to me for a birthday party. This is the nature of Boris Nikolayevich. Once he complained about the state flag being removed from his car after he ceased to be president. It is amazing.
[Maksimovskaya] Where will you hold your reception?
[Gorbachev] In a restaurant. I've already ordered everything and made a deposit. I shall pay the rest of the sum depending on how much will be eaten and drunk.
[Maksimovskaya] And who will foot the bill - the state or you?
[Gorbachev] God forbid! Of course, the government has a lot of money now but society is still suffering. Is it time to organize drinking-bouts [at the expense of the state]? No! There will be enough drinks and food.
Praise for Putin
[Maksimovskaya] People sometimes say that Yeltsin's epoch has not ended yet because President Putin is a part of the previous era. Do you agree with it?
[Gorbachev] I think that Putin inherited chaos in the economy, culture, education, science and the army. He did much in the first four years [of his presidency]. Not everything can be justified, but he did very much to stabilize and consolidate the country. It is a kind of a social democratic course. I see that he has bad luck with the government. In the other hand, he appointed this government himself.
[Maksimovskaya] Yes.
[Gorbachev] I said after the monetization [cash-for-concessions reform in January 2005], that it [mass protest rallies] was a reaction to the government's inability to cope with its main tasks.
[Maksimovskaya] You have repeatedly criticized the situation with freedom of speech and democracy in Russia. Has anything changed for the better?
[Gorbachev] I do not see substantial progress. We have lost many achievements of the perestroika period.
One Russia "party of nomenklatura"
[Maksimovskaya] Why are the Russian democrats losing the battle against the authority so hopelessly?
[Gorbachev] Nothing big can be done in Russia if you deviate from the principle of [social] justice. I think that betting on the One Russia party, the new edition of the CPSU [the Communist party of the Soviet Union], the party of nomenklatura, has no bright prospects. New parties and new [political] forces will emerge.
[Maksimovskaya] How do you think will an unknown or a well-known person become the next president of Russia in 2008?
[Gorbachev] I think he will be a more or less known person. There are enough people, and there is a choice. I often look at the [State] Duma. Half of the deputies are primitive people, and they have strange views. What is their concern? [Duma first deputy chairperson] Lyudmila [as heard; actually, Lyubov] Konstantinovna Sliska, whom I respect, suddenly put forward a slogan: we, the deputies, should go in for business. What is this? Creation of feed boxes for the years of retreat [from politics]? What sort of parliament is it?
[Maksimovskaya] She is a representative of the ruling party.
[Gorbachev] Ruling parties are different.
[Maksimovskaya] One question is usually being asked of a birthday boy: do you look into the future with optimism?
[Gorbachev] I am an optimist. But I like telling people a funny joke. What is the difference between a pessimist and an optimist? The pessimist says: Life can't be worse, it's time to put my head in the noose! And the optimist responds: Don't worry, life can be worse! But I do believe in Russia.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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