Loved in the World, Hated in Russia – This Is the Legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev.

His death at a time when Putin is inflicting a three-decade setback on the Russian people is a strange symbol of history.

In deepest Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev is as hated as Vladimir Putin is loved. More than thirty years after the fall of the USSR, his last leader symbolizes, for the majority of the population, the years of economic crisis, social unrest, and loss of international influence.

The current head of the Kremlin, on the other hand, embodies, in the popular imagi…