Gorbachev backs Obama reforms
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev backed US president-elect Barack Obama’s reforming stance, saying the world needed a strong America.
“America needs its own perestroika,” Mr Gorbachev, 77, said in an interview at his Moscow think-tank.
He said with the overwhelming election of Mr Obama, “the entire world felt that America wanted change and was expecting change”.
Mr Obama’s detractors in Russia hope that his policies will lead to the demise of the US, pointing to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 following Mr Gorbachev’s liberal reforms.
But Mr Gorbachev said the world needed a strong America, as shown by the current global financial crisis, and he urged Washington to use its power for the good of all.
“America is needed – an America that is strong, democratic and sure of itself - for the entire world, not just for Americans,” he said. “We are seeing that if it’s bad for America, it’s bad for us all.”
He said many world leaders, including those in Russia and Iran, were eager for improved relations with Washington and he urged Mr Obama not to miss the opportunity.
For many Americans, Russia had moved to the top of the list of rogue nations, Mr Gorbachev said.
He expressed hope that Mr Obama would usher in a new period in US-Russian relations.
Russia shocked the West with its invasion of neighbouring Georgia in August. And when most world leaders were extending congratulations to Mr Obama on his victory, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev threatened to station short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad enclave on Nato’s borders if the US pushed ahead with missile defence sites in eastern Europe.
But Mr Gorbachev said it was not an attempt to test the young president-elect.
“This was simply something from a past era,” he said. “As you do to us, we will do to you. ... We don’t need this.”
He urged Mr Obama to “muster his courage” and reconsider the decision to station missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Mr Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in negotiating arms reduction treaties and ending the Cold War.
In the interview with The Associated Press at the Gorbachev Foundation, he was relaxed and seemingly comfortable in his elder statesman-like role. But although popular abroad, he commands little attention in Russia, where many blame him for the Soviet collapse.
Even so, he remains politically active in Moscow, where he co-owns one of the few newspapers still willing to criticise the Kremlin and plans to create a new political party.
Mr Gorbachev was cautious in his criticism of the political system created by Vladimir Putin, who in his eight years as president brought parliament and regional governors under Kremlin control. But he praised Mr Putin himself, who is now prime minister.
He said most Russians still saw Mr Putin as the more powerful leader, but stressed that he and Mr Medvedev were a team.
“We have a real tandem in Russia, a normal tandem, and it poses no danger,” Mr Gorbachev said.
