R.I.P. Michail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

[Arneb]

At 91 years. Thanks a lot tovarishch, for allowing what seened to be unthinkable at the time.

You made a difference.

[Мастер]

At 91 years. Thanks a lot tovarishch, for allowing what seened to be unthinkable at the time.

You made a difference.

Yes, but his death date might well be made a national holiday in Russia.

[tubeswell]

This statement from February 2022, on Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine, attributed to Mr Gorbachev apparently

[Мастер]

The best president the Soviet Union ever had.

Also the worst president the Soviet Union ever had.

As it happens, the only president the Soviet Union ever had.

Unless there are more coming in the future.

[Arneb]

The man who called the dissolution of the Soviet Union "the greatest gepolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, has announced he will send the bereaved family a telegram (yes, a telegram, not a Telegram) of condolence. I don't think he will celebrate this death, as in his eyes, Gorbi had at least this one thing going for him: To have wanted to save and preserve the Soviet Union. Which is something that cannot be said, at all, of Putin's own political foster figure, Boris Nicolayevich Yeltsin. Besides, Putin has put basically all of Gorbachev's ideas and ideals 6 ft. under already, so why bother.

[g-one]

The best president the Soviet Union ever had.

Also the worst president the Soviet Union ever had.

As it happens, the only president the Soviet Union ever had.

Also the only Soviet General Secretary born post-revolution.

[Richard A]

Gorbachev, R.I.P. indeed. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that Putin never forgave Gorbachev for losing him his job and the Soviet authority imposed by might that that job upheld. Another Guardian article told of an incident during those unbelievable days of the autumn of 1989. Putin emerged from his Dresden office to find a protest crowd outside. A few Soviet soldiers were standing around. The crowd were, shall we say, less than happy to see Putin and made that clear. The soldiers just stood there. So Putin demanded to know why they weren't doing anything - and got the reply, "We cannot intervene without orders from Moscow. And Moscow is silent." That the man who only weeks earlier struck fear into 17 million citizens of the GDR could now quite possibly be given the kind of beating he and his like were more used to handing out (in the event, though, he wasn't in fact physically harmed) was something he has spent the ensuing 3 decades "putting right". There could not have been two more different visions for post-1991 Russia.