Alex Kuffner. "Gorbachev counsels U.S. to respect Russian views"

     Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warns that tension between the United States and Russia has overtaken the goodwill built up between the two countries at the end of the Cold War.
     Speaking to a handful of reporters at an informal news conference before delivering a speech to 600 members of the Portsmouth Abbey Club, the 75-year-old statesman said hardliners in both countries had done much to destroy that spirit of cooperation."There was a kind of euphoria about the prospects of working with America," he said through a translator. "These assets are being squandered. They are being withered away."
     For relations between the two nations to improve, Gorbachev insists that Washington must look upon Russia as "a serious partner" rather than a failed superpower.
     "Russia will never agree to be a dependent," he warned. "Through history, no one was able to bring Russia to its knees."
     At one point, the last leader of the former Soviet Union, wearing a charcoal gray suit and deep red tie, sparred good-naturedly with U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who had accompanied him to the news conference.
    When Kennedy tried to ask a question and prefaced it by quoting the late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, saying, "All politics are local," Gorbachev cut in with his own thoughts.
     "I can agree with that, but I can add something very important," he said. "Not only is politics local, but every family depends on what is happening elsewhere in the world. We all have common interests."
It was yet another reminder from Gorbachev that the United States cannot go it alone in world politics and that it especially must take notice of Russia.
     Afterward, Kennedy, who had met Gorbachev before yesterday's event, said the Russian seemed sensitive about his country. Although Gorbachev is credited in the United States with helping to end the Cold War, for which he won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, in his home country, many blame him for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
    "You could feel the tension clearly," Kennedy said. "He was pushing a Russian pride."
     Gorbachev was invited to speak at a 0-per-person event as part of the Carnegie Abbey Club's World Leadership Guest Series, which last year included appearances by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Prince Albert of Monaco is scheduled to visit in August.
     Reporters peppered Gorbachev with questions on a variety of topics, ranging from global warming to his views on the Middle East and the war in Iraq.
    While not specifically criticizing American policy in Iraq, Gorbachev stated that "Saddam Hussein was a creature of the West."
     Later, in answer to an unrelated question, he seemed to allude to Iraq again, saying, "It's very easy to invade some small state."
     But the leader who brought the terms glasnost and perestroika to his country prefers to remain optimistic.
     "I would want us to look to the future," he said. "I don't want us to look back at the bad things that happened in the past."

"The Albuquerque Tribune", April 2, 2006