Spending years mending fences between the U.S. and Russia, 85-year-old former Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev called on President Barack Obama to stop alienating Russia. Calling relations with the U.S. “frozen.” Gorbachev urged both sides to get beyond differences over Ukraine and find common ground on global issues. Known for Perestroika [restructuring] and Glasnost [freedoms] during the Reagan years 1986-1988, Gorbachev eventually tore down the Berlin Wall Nov. 9, 1989 and ended the Soviet Union Dec. 8, 1991. Working hard during his tenure March 11, 1985 to Dec. 25, 1991 to improve relations with the U.S., Gorbachev listened to Reagan’s demand in Berlin June 12, 1987 to “tear down this wall.” Under Obama, Russian relations deteriorated to Cold War lows after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014.
U.S. and European Union officials slapped Russia with economic sanctions Dec. 20, 2014, once it became clear Putin backed pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s Crimea and the Southeastern Donbass region. Western diplomats never admitted to CIA involvement in the so-called pro-Western coup Feb. 22, 2014 in Kiev that toppled the duly elected pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanokovich. Putin sat by helplessly hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics while pro-Western factions toppled Kiev’s elected government. Putin acted swiftly once the games ended Feb. 23, 2014, annexing Crimea March 1, 2014. Putin offered to return Crimea to Ukraine if Yanukovich’s duly elected government was reinstated. When Kiev’s new pro-Western leaders led by former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko dug in, Putin acted swiftly to annex Crimea and the Donbass region.
Obama couldn’t get beyond Putin’s takeover of Crimea, blaming Russia for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Putin did the same thing annexing Georgia’s Russian-speaking Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions Aug. 7, 2008. Russia never returned the Russian-speaking territories to Georgia. Gorbachev would like to see greater adherence to the German-brokered Sept. 5, 2014 and Feb. 11, 2015 Minsk protocols calling for a return of Donetsk and Luhansk to Kiev, provided certain conditions were met. “The current mechanisms of regulating the crisis are working poorly,” Gorbachev wrote in the state-run Rossiyskava Gazeta newspaper. Gorbachev called for more U.N. Security Council involvement resolving the Ukraine crisis. Gorbachev backed Putin’s annexation of Crimea, hesitant to criticize the Kremlin to defending Russian interests in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Gorbachev wants Putin and Obama to follow the Minsk protocols and resolve any unfinished business in Ukraine. “We shouldn’t allow the Ukraine crisis to heat up, the already feverish Europe and world as a whole,” said Gorbachev. Obliquely referring to the Syrian Crisis, Gorbachev sees the linkage between Ukraine and Syria, where the U.S. backs a Saudi-funded proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. White House officials can’t explain why the U.S. opposes Putin’s efforts to stabilize Syria against a Saudi-funded proxy war. “Europe may not be able to cope with another frozen conflict,” said Gorbachev, referring to the Syria crisis that has flooded Europe with Mideast refugees. Instead of working with Putin to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], Obama continues to back toppling al-Assad. Putin made it clear he stands behind al-Assad’s sovereignty.
Gorbachev urged the White House and Kremlin to resolve their differences over Crimea and Syria, ending the Cold War mentality. Gorbachev acknowledged former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s mistake of giving Crimea to Ukraine Feb. 19, 1954. Gorbachev believes returning Crimea to Russia was the right thing to do. Putin “corrected the mistake of the Soviet Union,” said Gorbachev. Gorbachev bears the historical burden to breaking up the Soviet Union in 1991. Instead of granting autonomy and sovereignty to former Soviet satellites, Gorbachev wanted to preserve Russia as a single democratic state. Gorbachev’s comments about regretting the 1991 Soviet breakup mirror those of Putin, often accused in the West of seeking to reinstate the old Soviet Union. U.S-Russian-relations.are at the worst diplomatic levels since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Gorbachev has no answer for how relations with the U.S. hit post-Cold War lows. Backing Putin’s move in Crimea, the West sees a different Gorbachev from the days he looked forward to White House state dinners with President Ronald Reagan. Putin shows little interest in returning Crimea, no matter what happens in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk region. Putin agrees with Gorbachev that Kiev should be returned to its Russian-backed duly elected government. While there’s little chance Putin would return Crimea to Ukraine, there’s a good chance he’d cooperate on defeating ISIS if the U.S. changed its policy on regime change in Damascus. When you consider the massive loss of life and refugee crisis in Syria, coordinating strategy with Putin would help put U.S.-Russian relations back on track. Letting the Saudis dictate U.S. foreign policy has only caused problems.
