Mikhail Gorbachev’s death caused a surge of debates on his political heritage. As expected, opinions were split. Negative comments ... ... Gorbachev lived a long and comfortable life after leaving his post. However, he still remains probably the most tragic figure among Russian leaders. A vigorous orchestrator of long overdue reforms, he eventually lost control over them and failed to prevent a ...
... attempts to remedy the fundamental problems underlying Soviet-type regimes.
It was a typical tragic situation. What Stalin had done to the Soviet Union and its allied states could not be repaired without the kinds of severe bumps and crises that Russia and the other former Soviet republics have been experiencing since the Soviet collapse. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Soviet-type regimes resulted in severe problems, some of which might well be called disastrous. Nevertheless, the fall ...
... But I wonder how seriously they have thought about this assumption. When I ask Russians if they see an alternative, they usually can say what they don't like about Putin. But I have I have yet to hear anyone present a credible alternative.
Mikhail Gorbachev, reflecting the view of a large part of the Russian public, once said that Putin literally saved Russia. Yet the difficulty of imaging a country after the departure of an extraordinary leader is not unique to Russia under Putin. Think of the French trying to imagine France after de Gaulle? What ...