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Mikhail Gorbachev has died

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Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I laughed so loud at this my wife yelled at me from across the house, "What's so funny?!"

There's no way that comment wasn't sarcasm, right?

Looking at his comment history, no, he looks to 100% believe poor, innocent Russia is fighting a defensive war in which it has been easily rolling over Ukraine.

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#22
The United States didn't do enough to help Russia transition to democracy in the 1990s. There was no "Marshall Plan" after the Cold War like there was after World War II. This was a huge mistake, and we see the consequences now, with Russia having turned back toward totalitarianism and imperialism. Sadly, it seems that Gorbachev's efforts were mostly for naught. But it was courageous at the time to open up the Soviet Union to glasnost and perestroika.

Of course Yeltsin was a big part of the problem too.

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#23

Paraphrasing President Reagan: The Moscow police are notoriously strict when it comes to speeding. One day, Gorbachev and his driver are going to a meeting, and they are running late. Gorbachev admonishes the driver to go faster, but his driver refuses. Finally, Gorbachev says, "Fine! Pull over! I will drive." Gorbachev starts speeding through the streets of Moscow with his driver in the back seat. They are pulled ov…

that is pretty funny.

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#26

Paraphrasing President Reagan: The Moscow police are notoriously strict when it comes to speeding. One day, Gorbachev and his driver are going to a meeting, and they are running late. Gorbachev admonishes the driver to go faster, but his driver refuses. Finally, Gorbachev says, "Fine! Pull over! I will drive." Gorbachev starts speeding through the streets of Moscow with his driver in the back seat. They are pulled ov…

The first driver was a KGB agent named Putin

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#27

Paraphrasing President Reagan: The Moscow police are notoriously strict when it comes to speeding. One day, Gorbachev and his driver are going to a meeting, and they are running late. Gorbachev admonishes the driver to go faster, but his driver refuses. Finally, Gorbachev says, "Fine! Pull over! I will drive." Gorbachev starts speeding through the streets of Moscow with his driver in the back seat. They are pulled ov…

[deleted]

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#28

I was taught that Ronald Reagan ended the cold war and gave us the longest lasting economic boom.

He did. It's just that leftists in the US won't accept that and pretend that the Cold War just "ended" one day, because of the goodwill of the Russians, not because the US policy forced them into bankruptcy.

There's a disconnect here: the US policy in question took place over decades, not the 8 years that Reagan was president.

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#29

Paraphrasing President Reagan: The Moscow police are notoriously strict when it comes to speeding. One day, Gorbachev and his driver are going to a meeting, and they are running late. Gorbachev admonishes the driver to go faster, but his driver refuses. Finally, Gorbachev says, "Fine! Pull over! I will drive." Gorbachev starts speeding through the streets of Moscow with his driver in the back seat. They are pulled ov…

There was an earlier anecdote about Brezhnev on this topic…

Re: Mikhail Gorbachev has died

#30
post #22

The United States didn't do enough to help Russia transition to democracy in the 1990s. There was no "Marshall Plan" after the Cold War like there was after World War II. This was a huge mistake, and we see the consequences now, with Russia having turned back toward totalitarianism and imperialism. Sadly, it seems that Gorbachev's efforts were mostly for naught. But it was courageous at the time to open up the Soviet…

Was the absence of Marshall plan happened because of the West or because of Russia's decision?

> Sadly, it seems that Gorbachev's efforts were mostly for naught.

Russia today is a faint ghost of the former USSR. The events in Eastern Europe show that to an extent.

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