Europe must lead in creating “the new world”
Edited excerpting by Carolyn Bennett
|
I
|
t should
not be like this. “Fences are being built around us, which push towards
an anti-Russian way. Even Germany which after reunification presented itself
very well and called for renovation, is now just on the brink of a split. And
now nothing takes place without the presence and a push from America” [Mikhail
Gorbachev at TASS December 1, 2014].
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev talks with the
TASS News Agency, interview posted at RT. December 1, 2014. Here is some of what he said.
Cold War
“The ‘new world order’ after the Cold War allowed major
powers to quickly solve a lot of longtime conflicts around the globe.”
But the current “signs of Cold War” seen in recent cooling of
“relations between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s accession of the Crimea
and the turmoil in Ukraine” indicate that “we must go back to the starting line where we began building a new world both in Europe and elsewhere.…
“We can
and we must stop this whole process” of return to Cold War as “we did in the
1980s.” Then, “we opted for de-escalation and the unification [of Germany]. Back then it was a lot tougher than now – so why can’t we do it again.”
Dangerous use of power
Having declared itself the victor of the Cold War, the United
States, its leaders “are still intoxicated by this ‘triumph.’ Russia also makes
a lot of mistakes (but) today the danger comes from the US stance.”
 |
| Walls of Shame |
The current state of affairs, Gorbachev says (and I agree wholeheartedly) is “unacceptable.”
Walls
“Fences are being built around us, pushing [the
international community] on to an anti-Russia path.”
Anti-Russian moods are rising in various countries –
including Germany, which had good relations with Moscow in recent decades. This always happens “in the presence of and due to instigation from the American side.”
 |
| Merkel remembers 25 years after fall of Berlin Wall |
Constructive
way forward
“There is still time… We must stop those war-hungry
militarists.”
He said he has “some
ideas” and “with a group of ‘important influential people from United States” interested
in his involvement,” he is prepared to help “resolve tensions between Russia
and the United States.”
“People
will turn up who will have the strength
|
to stop this (regression) and start building a new world
order that would meet the challenges faced by the international community. Europe
can have a very positive impact on the situation. It must become the locomotive
in the creation of the new world.”
Noted for his policies of Glasnost and Perestroika (“openness”
and “restructuring”), for his summit conferences with then-US President Ronald
Reagan, and for changing Soviet strategic aims, former Soviet President Mikhail
Sergeyevich Gorbachev is well-known for aiding in ending the Cold War.
 |
| December 1, 2014 Gorbachev talks with TASS |
On December 8, 1987, Gorbachev signed an agreement with U.S.
President Ronald Reagan for their two countries to destroy all existing stocks
of intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles. In 1988–1989, he oversaw the
withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after their nine-year occupation
of that country. He was general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to
1991.
|
A
|
Britannica article calls Mikhail Gorbachev “the
single most important initiator of a series of events in late 1989 and
1990 that transformed the political fabric of Europe and marked the beginning
of the end of the Cold War.”
Gorbachev was a child of the Soviet Union’s famine years
(1932–1933). He was born in 1931 of peasant Ukrainian–Russian parents, migrants
from Voronezh and Chernigov Governorates, in Stavropol Krai. In his teen years, he (as had his father) operated combine harvesters on collective farms and qualified
as an agricultural economist. Later he graduated from Moscow State University with
a degree in law. Among his awards and honorary degrees are the 1989 Otto Hahn Peace Medal and the 1992
Harvey Prize.
Sources and notes
“Gorbachev: It’s up to Europe to prevent new Cold War
between US and Russia,” Published time: December 1, 2014 19:59, http://rt.com/news/210463-gorbachev-us-russia-europe/
“Gorbachev warns of new cold war, calls to stop building
fences around Russia: Soviet Union’s first and only president Mikhail Gorbachev
compared the present situation with the one the country faced in the 1980s,” December 1, 2014, 17:00 UTC+3, http://tass.ru/en/russia/764517
Named after an industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey, the Harvey
Prize “is an Israeli scientific distinction awarded annually for breakthroughs
in science and technology and for contributions to Peace in the Middle East,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Prize
Bio: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л
Серге́евич Горбачёв, tr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachov; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ
ɡərbɐˈt͡ɕɵf] ( ); born March 2, 1931) is a former Soviet statesman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev
See also biographical article in Britannica
Gorbachev, Mikhail.
(2013). Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Deluxe
Edition. Chicago: Encyclopedia
Britannica.
______________________________________________
A lifelong American writer and writer/activist (former academic and staffer with the U.S. government in Washington), Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett is credentialed in education and print journalism and public affairs (PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; MA, The American University, Washington, DC). Her work concerns itself with news and current affairs, historical contexts, and ideas particularly related to acts and consequences of U.S. foreign relations, geopolitics, human rights, war and peace, and violence and nonviolence. Dr. Bennett is an internationalist and nonpartisan progressive personally concerned with society and the common good. An educator at heart, her career began with the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Since then, she has authored several books and numerous current-affairs articles; her latest book: UNCONSCIONABLE: How The World Sees Us: World News, Alternative Views, Commentary on U.S. Foreign Relations; most thoughts, articles, edited work are posted at Bennett’s Study: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/ and on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08UNCONSCIONABLE/prweb12131656.htm http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-000757788/UNCONSCIONABLE.aspx Her books are also available at independent bookstores in New York State: Lift Bridge in Brockport; Sundance in Geneseo; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center in Buffalo; Burlingham Books in Perry; The Bookworm in East Aurora
______________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment