[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

And also remember that BOTH Gorbachev and Putin came from the Andropov camp. Gorbachev as an aide who Andropov recommended replace him as Chairman, Putin as part of the “Andropov Levy”, bringing in younger, new thinking as reformers into the KGB.

This is silliness. Is part of the reform throwing people head first out of windows rather than feet first? Gorbachev and the rest merely supervised the perestroika deception. The seeming liberalization of the USSR was being planned as early as the 1950s, and was predicted by KGB defectors in advance to its actual happening. What happened in Russia was a redux of Lenin's NEP, take 2 steps back, one step forward, as part of a larger strategy to disarm the west ideologically.

Real reform of that country requires full decommunization and dismantling of the soviet structures that put Putin into power.

[tcrlaf]

“This is silliness.”

This isn’t history?
I take it you haven’t spent much time on recent Russian history.
Andropov didn’t recommend Gorby as his replacement?

Or is this all just history you would choose to rewrite?