How the West betrayed Mikhail Gorbachev (tags)
Gorbachev wanted to transform the Soviet Union from a closed, repressive system into an open, communicative socialist system that would be part of the European family. This effort was called glasnost (openness) and was advanced through the reform movement called perestroika.
analysis of current unrest in the Ukraine
Russia Never Wanted a War (tags)
The planners of the crisis in Georgia clearly wanted to make sure that Russia would be blamed for worsening the situation.
Gorbachev Calls Cheney a "Durak" (fool, idiot) (tags)
It was Friday evening, May 19, 2006. My spouse (Carol DePrisco) and I were dining at Barron - the house restaurant of St. Petersburg's recently refurbished Petro Palace Hotel (located on Malaya Morskaya street, just one block east of St. Issac's Cathedral and two blocks west of bustling Nevsky Prospect). We were dining with a retired professor of English from St. Petersburg State University. At the very outset of our conversation, the professor inquired: "You are not a Republican, are you?" I assured her I wasn't, thus breaking the ice for a very pleasant and engaging conversation during dinner and afterward in our spacious hotel suite.
Capitalist Gangsters to Buy Russia (tags)
"In Russia, this is the equivalent of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch coming to the defense of Bill Gates and Microsoft during the U.S. anti-trust trial in the 1990s."