Originally Posted by Skybird

For obvious reasons, Gorbatchev will always enjoy special respect and sympathy in germany. We really owe him a lot - and more than anybody else. Without his willingness, reunification would not have been possible. They once showed a long and very good docu on him, where they examined and showed the intrigues against him and howhis opponents manouvered against hiom in his back, and isolated him. With a more loyal team to his support, I think he would have been more successful regarding Soviet/Russian internal interests. I also think he does not compare to the selling out of Russian interests to Western economic enterprises that took place under Yeltsin - that man, beside his role in the attempted coup in the beginning, turned out to be a real disgrace for Russia. Putin bad, anti-democratic reputaiton comes from Putin needing to repair and save what had been damaged and lost by Yeltsin, who really let behind a China shop in rubble and let Putin no other choice than to rule with iron hand and powerpolitics instead of democratic playacting.

Gorbatchev deserved a better historic reputation than the record people outside Germany remember him for.