When Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, he had no greater champion than Mikhail Gorbachev. But as Putin slowly transformed Russia into an imperial presidency, the two men turned against each other.
The speedy reforms — from opening to trade to privatising many state-owned enterprises — were designed to bring the Soviet Union's command and control economy closer to a regulated market economy.
It spurred on the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ultimately came with the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev on Christmas Day 1991.In the West, the last Soviet leader was revered and celebrated, having freed Russia from the chains of communism and ushered in democracy.This was the man who had allowed the once glorious Soviet empire to be carved up into pieces, in what Putin believed was the "greatest catastrophe of the 20th century".
He welcomed Putin's leadership after years of what he described as chaos and disorder under former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, and regularly sprang to his defence when allegations of corruption were floated.
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