20 April 2017
Mikhail Gorbachev’s Essay About Vladimir PutinTIME 100 asked Mikhail Gorbachev to write a brief essay with his thoughts about Vladimir Putin. Below is the full text and a link to the magazine’s website.
Faced with a crisis inherited from his predecessor, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin succeeded in stabilizing the situation, preserving the Russian state, steering the country away from the economic crisis, and strengthening its economic position.
In the initial phase, certain measures of authoritarian nature – a kind of manual control – were justified. Hence, the cost: a diminished role of parliament, the judiciary and civil society and less media independence. With time, the flaws of the economic policy became more evident. Economic growth slowed down even before deterioration of relations with the West and economic sanctions. This is increasingly affecting people’s lives.
Today, even as the international agenda continues to be important, equally urgent are Russia’s domestic problems: stagnating economy and declining living standards, the poverty of many and corruption and illegal enrichment of the few, the degradation of education, health care and science.
Each year, in his annual address to parliament, the President emphasizes these problems.
But, they cannot be solved without a change in politics, in the system of government.
I am convinced: Russia can succeed only through reliance on the people, only through democracy. Russia is ready for political competition, a real multi-party system, fair elections and regular change of government.
This should define the special role and responsibility of the President at this point in Russia’s history. |
The XXI century will be a сentury either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us - all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all faiths - must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance.
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Русский |
