The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, recalled this Wednesday former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who disappeared on Tuesday, lamenting that the air of change and democratization that he brought to Russia has vanished during the time of Vladimir Putin.
“Gorbachev sent a wind of freedom to Russian society and tried to change the communist system from within, which was impossible,” the head of European diplomacy said in statements from Prague before the informal meeting of foreign ministers.
In this sense, he has assessed that the last Soviet leader “began an era of cooperation with the West and put an end to the Cold War”. “Unfortunately hopes have vanished,” Borrell lamented, referring to the current relationship with Putin’s Russia and the military aggression against Ukraine.
This message joins that of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who has recognized Gorbachev’s “deep commitment to peace and freedom”. In his condolences, the former Belgian Prime Minister had words for his family, his friends and the Russian people.
Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, first as head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Supreme Soviet and later as president. His career culminated in 1991, when he resigned after the dissolution agreement signed with Belarus and Ukraine, already with the Iron Curtain in retreat.
Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1990, he symbolized both inside and outside Russia the end of an era for the once powerful Soviet Union and his legacy remained uncomfortable in certain internal sectors, in such a way that his image is not revered as much as that of other leaders associated with times of greatness.
Source: Europa Press
