The New Russia Hardcover

Mikhail Gorbachev

After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years. Putin s motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail Gorbachev. In this new work, Russia s elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience to reveal the development of Putin s regime and the intentions behind it. He argues that Putin has significantly diminished the achievements of perestroika and is part of an over-centralized system that presents a precarious future for Russia. Faced with this, Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics and a new fostering of pluralism and social democracy. Gorbachev s insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region, including the Ukraine conflict, as well as the global challenges of poverty and climate change. Above all else, he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War.This book represents the summation of Gorbachev s thinking on the course that Russia has taken since 1991 and stands as a testament to one of the greatest and most influential statesmen of the twentieth century.

1509503870

9781509503872

English

Polity Press

1/Dec/16

400

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Part from 1985 to 1991. Since then, he has maintained an active role in world affairs through the Gorbachev Foundation, a non-profit think tank which promotes democracy and humanitarian initiatives globally.

This is a reminder of how vast was [Gorbachev's] achievement in allowing in the light of freedom. Where his contemporary, Nelson Mandela, was great beyond the whites' deserts in building a post-apartheid nation, Mr Gorbachev was great beyond the deserts of the Soviet Union (and perhaps even of the west, which could barely understand or trust him) in proposing a way for the despotic world to aspire to democratic governance, freely organised civil society and rule of law. That he failed, he keenly knows. Our best hope is that his ideas, in time, succeed.-Financial Times