‘IN HIS LAST DAYS GORBACHEV WAS UPSET WITH CURRENT STATE OF RUSSIA’

MOSCOW, Sep. 1, 2022 (TBINN)
Reportedly, a month before Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, his close journslist friend said the former U.S.S.R. president was upset at the current state of Russia and felt that his life’s work had been ruined.
Russian media reported the death of Gorbachev on Tuesday, at the age of 91. Reports earlier this summer stated he was suffering from a serious kidney ailment.
Gorbachev was the last president of the Soviet Union before it collapsed. He helped end the Cold War and usher in a new age of warmer relationships between Moscow and the West.
About a month before his death, journalist Alexei Venidiktov, who was close friends with Gorbachev, expressed to local Press that Gorbachev was upset at the current state of Russia and felt that his life’s work had been undone.
Venidiktov was interviewed about the closing of his radio station, following President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on the press in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, when he expressed and revealed the state of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Venidiktov pointed out how a lot of work Gorbachev did in office, tempering tensions with the West and granting citizens more freedoms, had been reversed recently under Putin. Putin stoked tensions with N.A.T.O. by deciding to invade Ukraine in February, threatening broader conflict in eastern Europe and prompting wide-spread sanctions. At home, he’s cracked down on dissension by censoring the press and arresting citizens who protest, he added.
I can tell you that Gorbachev was upset, of course, he understood. It was his life’s work. Freedom was Gorbachev’s business. Everyone has already forgotten who gave freedom to the Russian Orthodox Church. It was Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. Private property, again it was Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. So what is he going to say now? his friend reminded.
Still Gorbachev never said anything publicly about his thoughts on the Ukraine war. Though, over the years, he both, criticized and praised Putin publicly.