Published: Less than 10 min ago
Mikhail Gorbachev never publicly commented on the war in Ukraine or Putin’s new censorship laws.
In conversations with close friend Alexej Venediktov, he was stated to be all the more angry at the end.
– I can tell that Gorbachev is upset. It was his life’s work, Venediktov said just over a month ago.
The last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, 91, died on Tuesday evening after a long period of failing health.
Kidney disease kept him out of the public eye for the last years of his life. At the end of 2019, he gave one of his last international interviews, warning of the increased tensions between Russia and the West.
– As long as weapons of mass destruction exist, especially nuclear weapons, the danger is colossal. All countries should sign that nuclear weapons must be destroyed. It is to save ourselves and our planet, Gorbachev told the BBC’s Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg.
BBC journalist: He was sad
It was the fifth and last time they were spoken to in front of the camera. Rosenberg writes in a memory text that Gorbachev had changed:
“There was a sadness about him that I had not seen before. It was as if he sensed that what he had accomplished was about to be undone, that Russia was back in autocracy and that the confrontation between East and West was back.”
In the 2019 interview, Gorbachev was asked how the tensions between the US and Russia can be described in relation to the Cold War.
– They are cold, but it is still war. See what happens. There are skirmishes in various places, shots are fired, planes and ships are sent here and there. It’s not a situation we want, he said.
Close friend in July: “He is upset”
Gorbachev has not made any official statements since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But according to close friend and Kremlin critic Alexei Venediktov, the ex-president was furious with Putin for the new laws that forced the media to close and banned criticism of the war.
– I can tell that Gorbachev is upset. He understands, of course. It was his life’s work, Venediktov said according to Newsweek’s translation of an interview with Forbes Russia at the end of July.
The journalist Alexei Venediktov was one of the founders of the radio station “Echo of Moscow”. It fell silent in early March, just a week after the invasion.
– Everything Mikhail Segeyevich Gorbachev did is ruined. All Gorbachev’s reforms are erased, lie in ashes, have gone up in smoke, Venediktov said in the interview.
Be critical of NATO as well
In an interview with German Der Spiegel in 2015 warned Gorbachev that the then fresh Ukraine crisis could lead to a major war in Europe, even a nuclear war.
He spoke of “a loss of trust” between Russia and the West, calling it “catastrophic.”
But he was also critical of NATO’s expansion:
– No leader in the Kremlin can ignore such a thing.
As Deutsche Welle noted Gorbachev had defended the annexation of Crimea the year before. He called the West’s attempts to reduce Putin’s power “very stupid and extremely dangerous”.
At the same time, he was clear in his criticism of Putin’s authoritarian leadership and persecution of the opposition.
– Russia needs free elections and that people can participate in free elections. It is simply not acceptable when someone like Alexei Navalny is put under house arrest for speaking his mind.