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Salon

Politics

James Drake

UNCOVERED: How russia went from gorbachev to putin | History Defined

Russia Vladimir Putin Ukraine Mikhail Gorbachev Moscow

Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images

As Ukraine continues to spit defiance at the sons of Red Army veterans, I wonder what Mikhail Gorbachev is thinking.

Half a lifetime ago, in 1985, Gorbachev was installed as the Soviet Union's eighth and final leader, and set in in motion the perestroika reconstruction measures that ushered in the end of the Cold War, and ultimately the rise of Vladimir Putin.

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