Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s response to Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter plane on November 24th nicely reveals the contradictions on which so much of contemporary Russian political thinking is based.
Gorbachev starts by endorsing Vladimir Putin’s hard-line response—recall that the Russian president called Turkey’s action a “stab in the back”—as “understandable” and “justified.” That’s not surprising, as Gorbachev also believes that America’s desire for “dominance” produced Russia’s war with Ukraine. Back on January 31, 2015, Gorbachev said:
Plainly speaking, the US has already dragged us into a new Cold War, trying to openly implement its idea of triumphalism. What’s next? Unfortunately, I cannot be sure that the Cold War will not bring about a “hot” one. I’m afraid [the United States] might take the risk…. All we hear from the US and the EU now is sanctions against Russia. Are they completely out of their minds? The US has been totally “lost in the jungle” and is dragging us there as well.
Clearly, the architect of perestroika and the man who brought about the USSR’s collapse—which Putin still believes was the “greatest tragedy of the 20th century”—is an out-and-out Putinist.
As such, he should support Putin’s line on Ukraine as much as he supports it on Turkey and Russia. Instead, Gorbachev makes a suggestion that either completely undermines Russian foreign policy or reveals some deep-seated logical incoherence. His response to the jet’s downing continues with the following:
I suggest immediately starting preparations for an anti-terrorist pact or convention. Of what should it consist? Above all, a ban on supplies of weapons to all illegal armed formations wherever they might be. And second: the renunciation of support—not only material, but also moral and propagandistic—of all forces and movements whose goal is armed warfare against any state or government.
Come again, Mister Gorbachev? The pact you suggest and the language you employ would prohibit Russia’s supply of weapons and propaganda on behalf of the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, “whose goal is armed warfare against” the Ukrainian “state or government.”
Has Gorbachev joined the Ukrainian “fascists” ruling Kyiv? Is he cleverly using Putinist language and logic to undermine Putinist policy? Or is he just being as incoherent as Putin?
The evidence is mixed. On March 20, 2015, Gorbachev made the following sober comments on the Russo-Ukrainian war:
There is no military solution to this conflict and there will be no winners in it. It is important to support any constructive steps and any manifestations of a more responsible approach that could lead to peace…. Attempts to isolate Russia or ignore it would always be unsuccessful. I am sure that our country will overcome the current period of economic difficulties. But we need to seriously analyze the reasons behind them.
These aren’t exactly the sentiments of a crazed Russian nationalist à la Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
On the other hand, that same article blames the war on “the deliberate failure of perestroika” and the “irresponsible” decision by the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to dissolve the USSR in late 1991.
These are the exact sentiments of a crazed Russian imperialist à la Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps the best way to interpret Gorbachev’s incoherence is in terms of Putinist Russia’s incoherence. On the one hand, Putin wants to make Russia great again. On the other, he’s done nothing but weaken it in the last two years, reducing it to a blustering rogue state that’s trapped in its own contradictions and has no clue about what to do. Like Mikhail Gorbachev.
