The Gorbachev Era Twenty Years Later


Mystery still surrounds the 11 March 1985 transfer of power within the Soviet government. Regardless of the layers of intrigue, the legacy of that transfer is unrefutable. Unfortunately its future is much less clear.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev initiated the series of reforms that dismantled the global superpower the world perceived was the Soviet Union. The Soviet Ponzi scheme began to fold before the Berlin Wall collapsed. Within five months of that monumental event three Soviet Socialist Republics withdrew from the Union. The next year the scheme buckled under its burdensome weight to the extent Mr. Gorbachev conjured some peculiar quick fix type solutions he hoped - but probably doubted - his comrades would accept to preserve Soviet influence and power. The unsuccessful coup in August 1991 ended future quick fix options and led Mr. Gorbachev and the country he ruled for only six years and nine months to avanish into early retirement.

Friday 11 March 2005 was the twentieth anniversary of Mr. Gorbachev's rise to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Twenty years later it seems Russia needs a new round of vigorous reform to reverse the stultifying policies President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his clique of former KGB master minds and quasi-Maffia bosses prefer.

It is hardly a revelation that I held views of skepticism and concern towards Mr. Putin since the day Boris Yeltsin appointed him as prime minister in September 1999. Although I would like nothing more than to submit an "I was very wrong" article on this topic, events only serve to validate the skepticism and concern previously expressed.

One item of deep concern is Mr. Putin's blatant and increasing disregard for civil and human rights within Russia. The handling of the Yukos oil company is one example. A more definitive example is the the seizure of human rights activists and attorneys investigating detained non-combatants in Chechnya. On 20 January 2005 armed Russian security forces dressed in cammophlage seized respected human rights attorney Makhmut Magomadov. Mr. Magomadov was compiling case information on civil and human rights abuses and violations in the Chechen capital Grozny. Mr. Magomadov was within days of filing these cases with the European Court of Human Rights. He was last seen at the time of his capture in Grozny. Hence the Court of Human Rights cannot receive the evidence he collected. The concepts of filing charges, permitting access to counsel to mount a defense, and receiving at least a semblance of a fair and public trial do not exist even in their most nascent forms. All indications suggest that is how Mr. Putin intends the situation to remain.

The copyright of the article The Gorbachev Era Twenty Years Later in International Trade is owned by Carey Goodman. Permission to republish The Gorbachev Era Twenty Years Later in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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