Gorbachev to form new Russian party

[tannybogus]

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will join forces with Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev to launch a new political party independent of the Kremlin, the billionaire businessman said on Tuesday.

Gorbachev, 77, won the 1990 Nobel peace prize for allowing the peaceful revolutions the previous year that brought democracy to Eastern Europe after decades of Soviet control.

Though hugely admired in the West, he is deeply unpopular at home for presiding over the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union that led to economic and political chaos. When he last ran for president, in 1996, he won just half a percent of the vote.

Gorbachev initiated plans for the new party, said Lebedev on his website http://alex-lebedev.livejournal.com/141495.html



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080930/wl_nm/us_russia_gorbachev_party;_ylt=ArYkZyHYgLiqqRu5AsitMYUDW7oF

[Taverner]

1. Gorby is in the wrong country

He belongs here :)

[JVS]

2. He ran the country poorly the first time, who would want him at the helm again?

[bean fidhleir]

3. You must be joking. He was well along in the process of turning

a totalitarian empire into a social-democratic one -possibly even a near-socialist one. *Without* bloodshed.

It wasn't by accident that he was kidnapped or that Boris El'tsin-the-drunk was shoved into the spotlight and idolized by the corporate press. Or that that same corporate press told us almost nothing about the fate of the millions who died of starvation, exposure, and criminal activity as the country was turned into a "free market".

[David__77]

5. That's an optimistic assessment held by many progressives in the US in 1989-1991.

But I think it's wrong. Gorbachev was a social democrat, sure. A right-wing one, like Jean Kirkpatrick. He paved the way for Yeltsin in every respect.

He was not kidnapped by Yeltsin though. He was overthrown by a group of misguided, incompetent people with basically patriotic instincts that saw their country being destroyed before their eyes. Note how the coup plotters are widely positively regarded in Russia today.

[bean fidhleir]

9. I think that if you examine the situation more closely you'll find

that they didn't and don't understand what Gorbachev was doing. In trying for a painless perestrojka he was going too slowly to suit people who knew nothing about western life except what they got through VOA propaganda. They wanted all the benefits of capitalist excess without any of the downside.

They were painfully naïve, and furious with him for, at bottom, not making their dreams come true. They needed a scapegoat for what they did to themselves, and he was elected.

Many of those same people later emigrated to the US and were vociferously disappointed when they discovered that the propaganda was a lie, the streets aren't paved with gold, and it's easier to end up living under a bridge in the USA than it was in the USSR. I think it's only the Russian-speakers like me who got the full strength of the bitterness they felt on learning that nobody was going to hand them a well-paid job over here, or supply them with a nice place to live, a big car, or even language lessons. It was a huge shock for most of them to realize that nobody thought they were heroes or even gave a damn whether they lived or died. I know that at least some of them chose to go back to Russia, much sadder but who knows whether any wiser.

The coup plotters, by the way, were only "patriots" in the same sense that BushCo are patriots: they saw no reason why they shouldn't stay in power forever.

[Posteritatis]

6. We think that from out here; Russians have a different view of him. (nt)

[xxqqqzme]

7. boris was more than willing to

implement the 'economic shock therapy' mandated by the IMF, world bank & US and allow those 'free markets to control it all. Gorbachev, not so much.

[bean fidhleir]

10. Very nice capsule assessment, and accurate too.

El'tsin was happy to sell out, and drank himself to death on the proceeds.

[knitter4democracy]

11. No, they didn't like him because of his prohibition laws.

He didn't run it anywhere near as badly as Yeltsin did after him, but people there are still mad at him for making alcohol harder to get and more expensive.

[JVS]

12. Yeltsin ran it worse, but Gorbachev ran it poorly enough that the Union disintegrated.

That was not his goal

[knitter4democracy]

13. True. I'm not sure anyone could've kept it together, though.

With over 160 ethnic groups inside Russia alone, I'm not sure anyone could've kept the Union together. Add in those who had been working for independence for awhile anyway, and it makes it that much more difficult.

[David__77]

4. Ooh, it'll be lucky to get 1% of the vote.

A few elites in Moscow will vote for it, but the people by and large, rightfully, despise Gorbachev for wrecking the country. Millions going hungry, science and technology wrecked, the medical sector ravaged, lifespans shortening, alcoholism and prostitution booming - that's his legacy as far as Russians are concerned.

[WriteDown]

8. I believe he got less than 1% last time he ran n/t

[Pterodactyl]

14. A bad idea. Gorby would totally screw up Russia.

But, considering how awful the Putin administration is, that might be a good thing.

[jakefrep]

15. He probably ought to have somebody else start his car for a while