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Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet president who took down the Iron Curtain, dies


Scott

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Mikhail Gorbachev 4
 

(CNN)Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its dissolution, has died in Moscow at the age of 92, according to official statements.

Gorbachev, whose tumultuous rule was associated with the terms perestroika and glasnost (reform and openness) died after a long illness, Russian state news agencies reported.
 
"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a severe and prolonged illness," the Central Clinical Hospital said, according to RIA / Novosti Tuesday.
 
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I was still young at that time. But I was old enough to understand the significance of what Gorbachev did and the fall of the Berlin wall.

At that time many of us were optimistic that the cold war was over. No two opposing powers anymore with lots of nuclear weapons pointing at each other - and all those little countries in between.

The future looked bright.

 

Yeah, that was a long time ago. And then the powerful in this world found enough reasons to continue to fight each other, wage war in some other peoples' countries, produce and sell lots of weapons, ....

 

I don't know if we were stupid at that time to be optimistic or if there was a real change for a better world at that time.

 

RIP

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"It was man who ended the Cold War in case you didn't notice. It wasn't weaponry, or technology, or armies or campaigns. It was just man. Not even Western man either, as it happened, but our sworn enemy in the East, who went into the streets, faced the bullets and the batons and said: we've had enough. It was their emperor, not ours, who had the nerve to mount the rostrum and declare he had no clothes. And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day".

- John le Carre

 

And that 'emperor' who had the nerve was Mikhail Gorbachev.  RIP.

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4 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

What truth Mac?

 

Carefully worded statements from the Kremlin, truth?

All governments' statements are carefully worded, ghost-scripted and often far from the true feelings of the person in charge. This thread is about Gorbachev, try to stick to it.

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5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Putin expressed his condolence to the family.

Almost lowest possible level before swearing at the deceased.

There we go. If we want to be objective, then we should mention also what Biden expressed, from the same country behind the coup that brought the drunk puppet Eltsin to power while Gorbachev was vacationing. But I'll stop here since I want to respect Gorbachev's memory. I was often there in those years, I know they were really harsh times for the common citizens, but the alternatives were even worse and he took the right decisions, IMO.

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33 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

All governments' statements are carefully worded, ghost-scripted and often far from the true feelings of the person in charge. This thread is about Gorbachev, try to stick to it.

Sir, ALL of us. We can fight elsewhere to our heart's content. Why not just pause, pay our respects to a Great Statesman, then take our quarrels elsewhere.

Edited by baboon
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