Bob Campbell, Staff Writer. "Gorbachev compares proposed U.S. border wall to Berlin Wall"

Former Soviet President visits Midland

     Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev compared the United States' proposed 700-mile wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to the Berlin Wall during a Tuesday visit to Midland.
     Addressing a Tuesday news conference at UTPB's Center for Energy and Economic Diversification, the JBS Public Leadership Institute Distinguished Lecture Series speaker was by turns serious and flippant prior to a reception with more than 100 people.
     "You remember President Reagan standing in Berlin and saying, 'This wall should be torn down,'" said the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with.
     "I think what is really needed are ideas and proposals about how to improve that cooperation and work out all of those issues regarding immigration flows. I don't think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution.
     "Maybe if global warming results in melting the ice in Greenland, there will be an island where those who would like to separate themselves from the rest of the world could live," he quipped. "But then of course we'll have to work this out with Denmark."
     Gorbachev, 75, who lives in Moscow, said the Oct. 7 assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya bodes poorly for the advent of democracy in the Russian Federation. Noting she worked for a newspaper in which he is part owner, Novaya Gazeta, he said her unsolved shooting death in the apartment building where she lived was related to her work.
     "I have known Anna for a long time," he said. "She was an excellent reporter and a wonderful woman -- very sensitive and responsive to whatever was happening in the country. Her main subjects were Chechnya and corruption. 
     "We all believe this murder was related to her work as a journalist. Not only did they kill Anna, but by doing so they dealt a heavy blow to democracy in our country. Not only her colleagues but the Russian public generally condemned this very strongly and that's why thousands of people came to her funeral."
Referring to the unsolved slayings of a dozen other Russian journalists in the past six years, Gorvachev said, "We don't know what the results of the investigation will be because in some similar cases, they were not able to find the murderers and those who supported the killings.
     "President Putin has charged the prosecutor general to be in control of this investigation and I and the other shareholders have decided our investigative reporters will do their own investigation parallel to the official investigation.
     "This tragedy shows our growth to freedom and democracy is a difficult road, but we need to go down that road to establish freedom and democracy as a permanent factor in Russian society."
     Gorbachev criticized the U.S. and the current Bush administration for what he said is a lack of support. Comparing current conditions to those before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, he said, "The political and social situation is difficult and the standard of living is worse for many people.
     "As for economic, political and religious freedoms, we can say our country has pulled itself out of the past and is a free country. Unfortunately, there are some in the world who would not want Russia to move rapidly and stand on its feet and be a strong country, including quite a few people in this country and the administration.
     "But this is something that is up to us and I'm sure we will move rapidly."
     Gorbachev expressed concern with North Korea's Oct. 9 underground nuclear test but said the six-party diplomatic group formed in 2003 by the U.S., China, Japan, Russian Federation and North and South Korea should be able to address the situation. "I think that definitely they are behaving badly," he said.
     "Now North Korea is saying it is ready to conduct another nuclear test, but the other five members have condemned those threats and there is some degree of unity."
     Before Gorbachev's appearance to 5,000 spectators at the Chaparral Center at Midland College, the news conference and reception were secured by officers of the UTPB and city of Midland police departments and officers of the Texas Comptroller's Criminal Investigation Division.
     Gorvachev's translator, Pavel Palazhchenko, asked upon leaving CEED if local newspapers would be available to read early this morning, when Gorbachev and his group would leave Midland after staying with Dr. Tulsi Singh.

Midland Reporter-Telegram, 18.10.2006