Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin Speak out Against Putin’s Reforms

mosnews.com ^ | 9/16/2004 | Staff

[Luis Gonzalez]

Soviet Union’s last president Mikhail Gorbachev and Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin expressed criticism regarding Vladimir Putin’s proposed reforms in Russian electoral system. Statements by Yeltsin and Gorbachev were made in exclusive interviews to Moskovskie Novosti (The Moscow News) weekly, and will be published in that newspaper’s Friday issue. MosNews, which is a partner publication of Moskovskie Novosti, posted full translation of both statements on our website on Thursday.

Our common goal is to do everything possible to make sure that bills, which, in essence, mean a step back from democracy, don’t come into force as law. I hope that the politicians, voters, and the president himself keep the democratic freedoms that were so hard to obtain, — reads Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement. Soviet Union’s last president, who ruled the country from 1985 to 1992, is convinced that Russian authorities “must search for political solutions, negotiate with the middle-of-the-road militants, separating them from the unappeasable extremists”.

His successor Boris Yeltsin, whose second presidential term ended on December 31, 1999, with a surprise announcement of his voluntary resignation (Vladimir Putin was named acting president three months before actually getting elected in March 2000), calls on the Kremlin to refrain from undermining the existing constitutional framework, despite the necessity of fighting terrorist threats.

I firmly believe that the measures that the country’s leadership will undertake after Beslan will remain within the framework of democratic freedoms that have become Russia’s most valuable achievement over the past decade. We will not give up on the letter of the law, and most importantly, the spirit of the Constitution our country had voted for at the public referendum in 1993. If only because the stifling of freedom and the curtailing of democratic rights is a victory by the terrorists. Only a democratic country can successfully resist terrorism and count on standing shoulder to shoulder with all of the world’s civilized countries, — Yeltsin says in his statement.

Boris Yeltsin’s statement is viewed as a surprise move by many observers in Moscow. Unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, who is still active on Russian political scene, Yeltsin chose to refrain from public comments about Vladimir Putin’s politics ever since his retirement. Recently Boris Berezovsky, an exiled tycoon, renowned for his criticisms of Kremlin and Putin, published an open letter to Russia’s first president, urging Yeltsin to speak up and reminding him of his responsibility for the establishment of Russian constitutional democracy. Yeltsin makes no mention of Berezovsky’s call in his statement, but some observers tend to link his decision to break silence with the exiled oligarch’s request.

[MarMema]

You're right Luis. You're a genuis and I am a complete idiot.
See you.

[Snapple]

Amen brother!

[StoneFury]

If there are so few of them involved in terrorism, how come we are still fighting them and losing so many lives to them?

I think the answer is obvious. The Chechens are relying on the moral support they receive from a select minority right here on our very own FR.

[StoneFury]

The Russians set up nuclear warheads aimed at our cities ninety miles off our shores...you defend them.

You equate the Russia of today with the Soviet Union of yesterday...and you defend criticism of their mortal enemies, the al Qaeda-allied Chechens.

[StoneFury]

Great history lesson. Now back to the topic.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"You equate the Russia of today with the Soviet Union of yesterday."

I know...the Russians of today fighting a bloody war against Chechnya since 1994, are not the same ones who fought a bloody war against Afghanistan from 79 to 89.

They have a different flag and everything.

[Valin]

I recall reading that they were attacked by both sides.

[TwilightDog]

Luis, another words, you have utterly marred judgement. I'm sure you've had this argument ad nauseum on this forum, but the behavior at the Beslam school is hardly an aberration in Muslim world.

This is similar to what is wrong with the Europeans. By not being able to psychologically reconcile themselves to the unpleasant truths of Islam they lash out and blame Israel and the US.

If you cannot get it together--still--on this basic, defining point, you're lost and all your assumptions formed
without this understanding are denial-of-reality intellectual failings.

The Russians no more need a terrorist state in their midst than do the Isrealis. We need to let them do whatever they deem fit no matter how heavy-handed it may seem by our standards.

[Valin]

And unfortunately, a large number of them work in fundraising or teaching, or just supporting terrorism in other ways - editing snuff films, perhaps. There are some innocents to be sure, but not in the huge numbers you seem to be claiming.



Sources please. As Daniel Pipes(?) seems to believe that those supporting the terrorist amount to 10% of the 1+ billion Muslims in the world granted this is a very large number but it's only 10%).

[CWOJackson]

Putin's Putzes on the warpath again today I see.

Keep them on their little red toes.

[StoneFury]

I recall reading that they were attacked by both sides.

If the Germans betrayed them later it wouldn't surprise me. But the Chechens did indeed collaborate with the Nazis. Check google for info. Here's a start.

In any case, my comment in Post 338 was in response to Luis's lashing out with the 'Nazi' label to all who opposed him. If he can do it, then why can't we all?

[Valin]

Thanks for the link.

"But when Chechen forces were accused of collaborating with the Germans during the Second World War,"

I'd be interested in any sources that you or anyone has on this. I've been looking but so far no joy.

One thing I think (hope) we can all agree on is the Caucasus is an area that has.....history and many of the people there really don't like each other. Unfortunatly this is the way of the world.

[StoneFury]

Hey Valin, I'll try to do some research on it later, but it won't be before Monday (I've got an all-day beer-n-barbeque to get to by noon -- it's gonna be a rough weekend!)

[Androcles]

Re your posts to my 315...I was being sarastic. No tyrant who has ever set freedoms aside for a 'crisis ' has been in a hurry to hand them back.

That said I do mourn Putin's open seizure of power because his abiliteies would have been a formidable asset to a truly new Russia rather than a modern remake of the Soviets....

[Valin]

I've got an all-day beer-n-barbeque to get to by noon -- it's gonna be a rough weekend!)

Now be good! Try it, I mean it doesn't work for me but it might for you.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I knew you were being sarcastic.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"I'm sure you've had this argument ad nauseum on this forum, but the behavior at the Beslam school is hardly an aberration in Muslim world."

One billion Muslims in the world, eighty percent of them living outside of the Middle East. Even if the entire Muslim population of the Middle East behaved as these guys did, which they do not, their behavior would still be an aberration in the Muslim world.

The six nations in the world with the highest number of Muslims are (in sequence): Indonesia (Republic), Pakistan (federal republic), India (federal republic), Bangladesh (parliamentary democracy), Turkey (republican parliamentary democracy), and Egypt (republic)...all fairly stable nations. The last four nations making up the top ten nations in the world in Muslim population are Iran (theocratic republic), Nigeria (republic transitioning from military to civilian rule), Ethiopia (federal republic, oldest independent country in Africa, and one of the oldest in the world - at least 2,000 years), and Morocco (constitutional monarchy).

The "Muslim world" isn't Syria, and Chechnya, and Sudan...they're the aberrations giving the rest of the Muslims a bad name.

[CWOJackson]

"That said I do mourn Putin's open seizure of power because his abiliteies would have been a formidable asset to a truly new Russia rather than a modern remake of the Soviets..."

That is a brilliant summation.

[CWOJackson]

More interesting read included.

[TwilightDog]

Luis, I'm entirely aware of the demographic spread of the Islamic world, thank you. The listing of the Demographics hardly establishes your point. Syria, Chechnya, and Sudan
are hardly what brings Islam into disrepute--they are consonant with 14 centuries of Islamic history and Muslim behavior all around the world today.

If you cannot recognize the obvious, or are in a contained-hysteria denial-of-reality, further discussion about it with someone on a message board forum is not going to influence your opinion. I'm sure you've been involved with these discussions before and simply refused to accept what others are telling you. Being wrong on a key issue like this is what brings people to a morally inverted view of reality--like the European's ideological outlook today.