[NYTr] A Little Late, Gorby Says Destroying the USSR Wasn't Such a Good Idea

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Dave Muller (southnews)

Former President Mikhail Gorbachev said Friday that the fall of the 
Soviet Union, which he helped bring about, ushered in an era of U.S. 
imperialism responsible for many of the world's gravest problems.

AP - Jul 27, 2007

Gorbachev blasts American 'imperialism'

By ALEX NICHOLSON
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - Former President Mikhail Gorbachev said Friday that the fall of 
the Soviet Union, which he helped bring about, ushered in an era of U.S. 
imperialism responsible for many of the world's gravest problems.

Gorbachev is lauded in the West for ushering in democratic reforms but 
widely despised in Russia for paving the way to the economic 
free-for-all of the 1990s, which brought fabulous wealth for a 
well-connected few while plunging much of the country into humiliating 
poverty.

He has since became a supporter of President Vladimir Putin's assertive 
foreign policy and resistance to American power  calling occasional 
news conferences to praise Putin's policies  but his criticism of the 
United States on Friday was especially harsh.

"The Americans want so much to be the winners. The fact that they are 
sick with this illness, this winners' complex, is the main reason why 
everything in the world is so confused and so complicated," he told the 
packed news conference.

Instead of ushering in a new era of cooperation with the West, the 
USSR's collapse put the United States into an aggressive, 
empire-building mood, the former leader said. Ultimately, he said, that 
has led the U.S. to commit a string of "major strategic mistakes."

"The idea of a new empire, of sole leadership, was born," Gorbachev said.

"Unilateral actions and wars followed," he added, saying that Washington 
"ignored the Security Council, international law and the will of their 
own people."

Gorbachev, 76, shared Putin's strong opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq.

Russia has fallen out with Washington on a host of other issues, pushing 
relations to a frosty state that some commentators have likened to the 
Cold War.

The Kremlin says the Bush administration's plans for a missile defense 
system in eastern Europe to guard against Iranian and North Korean 
missiles could spark a new arms race. It has refused to back 
Washington's draft Security Council resolution on Kosovo's independence 
and has suspended its participation in a key treaty on arms reduction in 
Europe.

Gorbachev, who won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the 
Cold War, echoed Putin's frequent endorsement of a so-called "multipolar 
world," without the perceived dominance of the United States.

"No one, no single center, can today command the world. No single group 
of countries ... can do it," Gorbachev said. "Under the current U.S. 
president, I don't think we can fundamentally change the situation as it 
is developing now ... It is dangerous. The world is experiencing a 
period of growing global disarray."

Gorbachev also claimed that Putin's recent decision to suspend Russia's 
participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was aimed at 
"encouraging" a dialogue on the amended version of the document which 
Russia has ratified but the United States and other NATO members have not.

He called for calm in the bitter diplomatic squabble with Britain over 
Russia's refusal to extradite a suspect in the radiation poisoning of 
former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The case has seen expulsions of 
diplomats by both countries.

And with parliamentary and presidential elections approaching, Gorbachev 
bemoaned the absence of a major liberal party in Russian politics, which 
is dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia. He dismissed Russia's 
main opposition group, Other Russia, as only "about making a bit of 
noise," and riding on the star power of its leader, former chess 
champion Garry Kasparov.

"It's a very weak opposition," he said.


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