Word: gorbachev
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...that in a postcolonial world, confederal states require divorce before reconciliation. The Baltic republics might have chosen this path, had Gorbachev allowed them to go their own way. After all, it is a natural Baltic interest to retain economic, communications and even military links with the country that will for decades remain the greatest power in that part of the world. The Balts would give up many attributes of sovereignty in return for a flag and an anthem...
...worn-out old phonograph record" whose potential as a political leader is "not great," snapped Mikhail Gorbachev. An "indecisive . . . master of half measures," countered Boris Yeltsin. That was the kind of gibe the Soviet Union's two leading politicos had been exchanging in three years of unabated rivalry. Last week they decided to cooperate: Gorbachev and Yeltsin agreed to set up a commission to frame a relatively radical plan for introducing a market economy. Said Nikolai Petrakov, a Gorbachev adviser and member of the 13-man panel: "This is the most important information...
While details of the agreement were not revealed, it appeared that Yeltsin, who was elected chairman of the Russian republic's parliament in May, had won a round. Gorbachev reportedly accepted, in principle at least, a program for switching to a market economy within 500 days -- the kind of crash program he has resisted because he felt the country was not ready for it. The accord was worked out in the Russian parliament, not in the President's inner circle. Radicals saw the development as a sign of their strength. Said Moscow Mayor Gavril Popov, who favors rapid change: "This...
...wake of Gorbachev's liberalizing reforms, the once proud armed forces have grown increasingly demoralized, and their popular prestige has plummeted. Young recruits complain of rampant hazing, even homosexual rape. Ethnic violence has racked many units; some military men claim that more Soviet soldiers have died in perestroika-era ethnic clashes than in Afghanistan. "How can an army that can't defend its own soldiers defend an entire country?" asks Valentina Zhukova, 42, whose son Edward was killed under mysterious circumstances while he was on active duty in Siberia. "They have no prestige...
...most conservative groups in Soviet society, the armed forces would seem to be an obvious target for Gorbachev's reforming zeal. But with so much pressure building inside the military for change, sheer momentum may bring about the kind of changes Gorbachev wants, without the President's having to lift a finger...