Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns against building a new physical or invisible wall between Russia and the West
MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, has warned against building a new physical or invisible wall between Russia and the West, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Gorbachev, now 88, played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and was later president of the Soviet Union. On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, East German border police opened crossing points in the Berlin Wall, which had been erected in 1961, and East Berliners poured into west Berlin.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it in August was “not the work of a great mind,” said Gorbachev. “However dangerous the current situation is, I don’t think it’s a re-run of the Cold War. There’s no ideological struggle between Russia and the West. But there are economic links, freedom of movement, communication and a cultural convergence. So I’m convinced that a new Cold war can be avoided.”Gorbachev, who led the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, used to travel widely and spend some of his leisure time in Germany at his estate.
At a rare public appearance in November last year at a Moscow cinema to watch a documentary about his own life, he had to be physically helped by aides to walk.
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