The current Russo-Western crisis has its origins in
American
“
arrogance
” after the fall of the USSR, its last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, ruled Friday, December 24, on the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of his resignation, a formal end of the 'Soviet Union.
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"
It went to their heads, arrogance, self-satisfaction, they proclaimed themselves winners in the Cold War when we had together saved the world from confrontation,
" he lambasted. “
How can we hope for equitable relations with the United States, with the West in this situation?
", Judged Mikhail Gorbachev, 90 years old, to the RIA Novosti news agency, denouncing"
the triumphalism
"of Washington. According to him, the Western camp wanted "to
build a new empire, it is there that the idea of the enlargement of NATO was born
".
According to Vladimir Putin, the enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance to include countries of the former Eastern bloc is the root cause of the Russo-Western crisis, because for the Kremlin NATO is the main threat. to its strategic security.
The Russian president this month called on the United States and its allies to sign treaties prohibiting, in particular, any future enlargement of the Alliance as well as any military cooperation in what Russia considers its area of influence.
Gorbachev welcomes talks
Washington, which considers many of these claims to be unacceptable, nevertheless accepted talks in January to allow a de-escalation, with the West fearing that Moscow would launch an invasion of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic which aspires to join NATO. This week, Vladimir Poutine considered “
positive
” the first American reactions to Russian demands, but he also said he was preparing “
military and technical
”
measures
to respond to the Western threat.
Mikhail Gorbachev welcomed the talks scheduled for January.
"
I support them and I hope that there will be a result which will allow all European countries to feel safe,
" he stressed.
Washington and the European Union accuse Moscow of having massed troops on the borders of Ukraine and threaten it with unprecedented economic sanctions in the event of aggression.
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Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from his post as President of the USSR on December 25, 1991, marking the formal end of the Communist Empire. Days earlier, the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine unilaterally announced the end of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Poutine called the fall of the USSR "
the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century
". For many Russians, the disappearance of the USSR and the economic and social crisis that ravaged society remain a trauma. And Vladimir Putin is seen as the leader who restored the country's honor and power on the international stage.
“
A feeling of sadness is linked to this date.
I did not know this period, because I was born in the 1990s but my parents told me, it was great.
Free education, a lot of things were free,
”Svetlana Outkina, a 30-year-old secretary from Moscow, told AFP.
Valentina Chmeleva, 84, a retired schoolteacher, does not have enough harsh words for Mr Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, the Russian president who precipitated the fall of the USSR.
"
It was traitors who came to power, Gorbachev destroyed the Union and the drunkard Yeltsin helped him
", she blurted.
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The USSR collapsed, undermined by its internal contradictions, an economic and food crisis, the lack of means, the independence aspirations of its republics and because of the arms race with the United States which emptied its coffers. .