The new Russia

After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years. Putin's motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail Gorbachev. In this new work, Russia's elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience to reveal the development of Putin's regime and the intentions behind it. He argues that Putin has significantly diminished the achievements of perestroika and is part of an over-centralized system that presents a precarious future for Russia. Faced with this, Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics and a new fostering of pluralism and social democracy. Gorbachev's insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region, including the Ukraine conflict, as well as the global challenges of poverty and climate change. Above all else, he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War. Gorbachev's insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region, including the Ukraine conflict, as well as the global challenges of poverty and climate change. Above all else, he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War. This book represents the summation of Gorbachev's thinking on the course that Russia has taken since 1991 and stands as a testament to one of the greatest and most influential statesmen of the twentieth century.

Originally published in Russian as Posle Kremlya, ©Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, 2015.

Preface: Perestroika and the future -- Trying to bury me -- After Perestroika. The 1990s : Defending Perestroika : My last day in the Kremlin ; A new beginning, without presidential immunity -- Shock therapy : The search for a scapegoat, threats ; The Gorbachev Foundation : its first reports ; December 1991 : politics and morality ; Salvation in work ; Attempts to "destabilize" me ; The "Trial of the CPSU" ; First results of shock therapy ; A year after the coup ; My stance ; The slide towards social catastrophe ; On the brink of crisis -- Fateful decisions, fateful days : A state of emergency is not the way to stability ; Defects of the new Constitution -- 1994 gets off to a bad start : Economists advise, but the government is not listening ; Nikita Khrushchev : lessons in courage and lessons from mistakes ; The Union could have been saved ; The economy : what now? ; Meetings in the regions ; Chechnya : a war that could have been avoided ; 1995 : 10 years of Perestroika : The intelligentsia ; Government and society -- The need for an alternative : Breaking through the conspiracy of silence ; Letters relating to the 1996 presidential election campaign ; Discrediting elections -- T…