Mikhail Gorbachev has warned of the erosion of democracy in Russia, saying that “whoever is in power gets everything”.
Speaking in an interview to mark his 85th birthday today the last leader of the Soviet Union said that the country’s leadership should “not be afraid of the people”.
Mr Gorbachev admitted his own legacy was disputed but argued that many Russians thanked him for the “gift” of “freedom and normal life” they experienced as a result of the Soviet breakup in 1991.
Asked what was lacking in Russia today, he told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper: “Democracy. Now everything is hand-controlled. Whoever is in power gets everything. Democracy is most of all about the fate of people, the fate of the nation.”
The former Soviet leader, who befriended Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, also raised the alarm about curbs on rights in an article published in Sunday.
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“We need to overcome the authoritarian tilt in internal politics,” he said.
Mr Gorbachev did not name any individuals to blame but said the process had begun in the 1990s and developed into “managed democracy”, a term associated with the rule of President Putin, which began in 2000.
“The concepts of ‘managed democracy’ and ‘a vertical of power’ appeared, supposedly for the sake of stabilisation and a boost in the economy,” he added. “The situation really did stabilise. But at the expense of the independence of parliament, courts and the media – and the [economic] boost was mostly due to high prices for oil and gas on international markets.”
President Putin sent a short birthday telegram to Mr Gorbachev calling him an “impressive, special” person but did not mention his time in office.
Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, published a congratulatory message calling him Sergei Gorbachev before the mistake was corrected.
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Mr Gorbachev came to power as an energetic younger Communist in 1985 and initiated reforms that would help unravel his country with six years.
In contrast to his positive image abroad, many Russians view the former Soviet general secretary and president with contempt, holding him personally responsible for the collapse of the 15-republic union and the chaos that followed.
An opinion poll published this week titled “Mikhail Gorbachev: Criminal or Victim?” found that 47 per cent of respondents believed he had done “nothing good for the country”. Twenty four per cent agreed he was “a criminal who maliciously and intentionally destroyed a great power”, up from 16 per cent in 2010, according to the survey by the VTsIOM agency.
Mr Gorbachev, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his efforts in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion, also expressed alarm at rising tensions between Russia and the West, warning of a “collapse in trust in international affairs”.
He said: “I am hugely troubled by the sharp polemic and mutual accusations, that increasingly remind one of a propaganda war between states,” he wrote. “In such an information environment it is very difficult to agree on anything.”