Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called Mikhail Gorbachev “a politician and statesman who has had a great impact on the course of world history,” providing a conciliatory message about the last Soviet leader, whom he spent his years in power seeking. reverse.
In a brief telegram of condolences to Gorbachev’s circle of relatives published through the Kremlin the day after his death, the Russian leader said Gorbachev “led our country through an era of complex and dramatic changes” and presented his “sincere words of sympathy and support. “”
Putin’s early public comments on Gorbachev’s death contrasted sharply with his policies, which sought to undo much of his predecessor’s legacy of political freedoms. Putin also called the end of the Soviet Union, presided over by Gorbachev, “the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century. “and now he is waging a war in Ukraine to regain what he sees as lost Russian lands, a war whose option Gorbachev once dismissed as “absurd. “
Gorbachev “deeply understood that reforms were needed, he strove to offer his own answers to pressing problems,” Putin said, noting “the wonderful humanitarian, charitable and educational work” of Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa.
The note of condolence allowed Putin to appear as a statesman above the political fray, but it soon became apparent that Gorbachev would not be respected in the Kremlin. Honors—he had not yet made up his mind and would count on his family’s wishes, according to the Interfax news agency.
On the other hand, on the day of the death in 2007 of Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, Putin, who succeeded him, decreed a day of national mourning at the instance of his funeral. The rite broadcast live on state television and the descent of Yeltsin’s Coffin accompanied by an artillery salvo.
On Wednesday, Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina, told news firm Interfax that her father’s funeral would take place on Saturday, in the wonderful corridor of Moscow’s House of Trade Unions.
Flanked by white Corinthian columns, the Great Hall has been the scene of many high-profile ceremonies, in addition to the funerals of Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Soviet leaders. Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife in Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery, his daughter said.
Peskov said the Kremlin was not sure Putin would attend the ceremony. In comments reported through Interfax, Peskov spoke more openly than Putin about Gorbachev, calling him an “extraordinary and exclusive person” while calling him a “romantic” who naively believed that a post-Soviet Russia can simply be a friend of the West.
Since his beginnings in the Kremlin, Putin has worked hard to undo Gorbachev’s emblematic policies, such as glasnost, openness and transparency of the government, and loose discussion of his work.
However, Putin was careful never to condemn Gorbachev’s legacy in its entirety, arguing that he presided over a Soviet formula that might not be repaired. For his part, Gorbachev has never criticized Putin to the point of questioning his legitimacy as Russia’s leader.
GORBACHEV PRAISED BY THE WEST
U. S. President Joe Biden praised Gorbachev for his openness to democratic change. Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War.
“After decades of brutal political repression, he embraced democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika (opening and restructuring) not as mere slogans, but as the way forward for the other people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation. Biden said.
Biden added that “these were the acts of a rare leader, one with the mind’s eye to see that another long term was imaginable and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result has been a safer and bigger world. “freedom for millions of people. people. “
Reactions from Russians and lawmakers have been mixed. They applauded Gorbachev for his role in the end of the Cold War, but censured him for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Oleg Morozov, a member of the Kremlin’s main United Russia party, said Gorbachev has “regretted” mistakes that were contrary to Russia’s interests.
“He is a voluntary or unwitting co-author of the unjust global order that our infantrymen are currently fighting on the battlefield,” Morozov said, referring to Russia’s existing war in Ukraine.
Lech Walesa, leader of Poland’s pro-democracy solidarity movement in the 1980s and the country’s president from 1990 to 1995, had a more nuanced view of Gorbachev. He said he “admired it, even enjoyed it, but didn’t perceive it. “”
“He said to the end that communism could be reformed, but I, on the contrary, didn’t think it was possible,” Walesa told Wirtualna Polska’s media.
Walesa added: “He knew that the Soviet Union might not last any longer and is doing everything he can to prevent the world from blaming Russia for communism. And he succeeded. “
World leaders paid tribute to a man some described as a courageous leader.
In Germany, where Gorbachev is one of the fathers of the country’s reunification in 1990 and is commonly referred to as “Gorbi,” former Foreign Minister Angela Merkel hailed him as “an exclusive politician in the world. “
“Gorbachev wrote the history of the global. He illustrated how a statesman can replace the global for the better,” he said, recalling how he feared Russian tanks would enter East Germany, where he lived, when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
In Asia, Gorbachev is remembered as a leader with the courage to bring about change.
China has identified Gorbachev’s role in healing relations between Moscow and Beijing. Gorbachev had been an inspiration to reformist thinkers in China in the late 1980s, and his visit to Beijing in 1989 marked a turning point in relations between the parties.
“Gorbachev has made positive contributions to the normalization of relations between China and the Soviet Union. We mourn his passing and send our condolences to his family,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
However, Chinese Communist Party leaders also see Gorbachev’s liberal as a fatal demonstration of weakness and his moves toward nonviolent coexistence with the West as a form of surrender.
Information for this article provided by Ivan Nechepurenko and Anton Troianovski of the New York Times and Kirsten Grieshaber, Patrick Quinn of the Associated Press.