1 November 2019
Exclusive: Don't build Berlin-style wall between Russia and West - Gorbachevlya Zhegulev, Andrew Osborn
In written comments to Reuters before the anniversary of the Wall being brought down on Nov. 9, 1989, Gorbachev also accused Washington - Moscow’s former Cold War enemy - of destroying the nuclear arms control architecture that keeps the world safe.
Gorbachev, now 88, played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and was later president of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev announced Soviet troop withdrawals from countries in central and eastern Europe that had been dominated by Moscow for decades, and made clear he would not interfere in the internal affairs of the then German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Gorbachev also made sure that Soviet troops garrisoned in the GDR stayed in their barracks and later agreed to allow Germany to reunify.
On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, East German border police opened crossing points in the Berlin Wall, which had been erected in 1961, and East Berliners poured into west Berlin.
Three decades on, and suffering intermittent health problems, Gorbachev said he was concerned by the dire state of East-West relations and in particular by the lack of dialogue between Washington and Moscow about nuclear weapons.
He referred to Washington’s decision to withdraw from a landmark 1987 nuclear missile pact, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which he negotiated with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it in August was “not the work of a great mind,” said Gorbachev.
But despite his criticism of U.S. foreign policy, Gorbachev warned against throwing up real or invisible Cold War-style barriers akin to the Berlin Wall to formalise East-West differences.
“Any wall is an attempt to seal oneself off from the real problem by not solving it and that’s why I’m against walls. And in Europe I’m against any dividing lines or any ‘Iron Curtains’,” Gorbachev told Reuters.
“However dangerous the current situation is, I don’t think it’s a re-run of the Cold War. There’s no ideological struggle between Russia and the West. But there are economic links, freedom of movement, communication and a cultural convergence. So I’m convinced that a new Cold war can be avoided.”
In written comments to Reuters before the anniversary of the Wall being brought down on Nov. 9, 1989, Gorbachev also accused Washington - Moscow’s former Cold War enemy - of destroying the nuclear arms control architecture that keeps the world safe.
Gorbachev, now 88, played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and was later president of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev announced Soviet troop withdrawals from countries in central and eastern Europe that had been dominated by Moscow for decades, and made clear he would not interfere in the internal affairs of the then German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Gorbachev also made sure that Soviet troops garrisoned in the GDR stayed in their barracks and later agreed to allow Germany to reunify.
On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, East German border police opened crossing points in the Berlin Wall, which had been erected in 1961, and East Berliners poured into west Berlin.
Three decades on, and suffering intermittent health problems, Gorbachev said he was concerned by the dire state of East-West relations and in particular by the lack of dialogue between Washington and Moscow about nuclear weapons.
He referred to Washington’s decision to withdraw from a landmark 1987 nuclear missile pact, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which he negotiated with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it in August was “not the work of a great mind,” said Gorbachev.
But despite his criticism of U.S. foreign policy, Gorbachev warned against throwing up real or invisible Cold War-style barriers akin to the Berlin Wall to formalise East-West differences.
“Any wall is an attempt to seal oneself off from the real problem by not solving it and that’s why I’m against walls. And in Europe I’m against any dividing lines or any ‘Iron Curtains’,” Gorbachev told Reuters.
“However dangerous the current situation is, I don’t think it’s a re-run of the Cold War. There’s no ideological struggle between Russia and the West. But there are economic links, freedom of movement, communication and a cultural convergence. So I’m convinced that a new Cold war can be avoided.”
Reuters, 31.10. 2019 |
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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