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Originally Posted by Oberon
According to that article this took place after the suggestion of an economic deal between Russia and the US failed to take place. Not suggesting that it was a direct result but it certainly can't have helped.
I wonder if Gorbachev had managed to get a deal with the US in a manner similar to that described in that article whether he would have managed to cling on to power a bit longer and ride through a more structured dissolution of the USSR. That being said, Yeltsin would still have worked to undermine him, but he might have been able to have pacified the hardliners a little with some economic relief...although it's always hard to tell what the hardliners would go for, they were particularly in denial in those last days of the USSR.  |
Gorbachev failed badly on the external policy arena. For example - if I remember it right he was offered essentially free money by the West Germans to assist in the unification of Germany, but he didn't take it. He took the expensive loans (as Soviet credit rating was bad).