Portuguese President Mario Soares condemned the treatment of Gorbachev, calling a travel ban imposed on him and a government decision to seize the offices of his research institute "intolerable".
"All the countries of the world owe a debt of gratitude to Gorbachev", Reuters quoted him as saying. "It is intolerable that he should be treated in such a manner".
But thousands of miles away at the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Bishkek, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Poltoranin said Friday that the treatment was just and accused Gorbachev of planning a coup.
"Gorbachev has set up a second Zurich, a Bolshevik center from which he watches to see how he can start firing the Aurora guns at the present authorities to launch another coup", he told reporters, referring to Lenin's return from Zurich in 1917 and the revolution which ensued.
Gorbachev, in an interview with France's TF1 television, dismissed Poltoranin's salvo as "political schizophrenia".
Poltoranin said that Gorbachev's research institute, the Gorbachev Foundation, had been out for profit rather than its stated goal of political, social and economic research. An audit performed by the finance ministry had shown that the Foundation had leased space in its large downtown complex to local and foreign businessmen to make money, he said.
"This smells of millions", he said. Last week President Boris Yeltsin ordered that the downtown offices and a suburban complex belonging to the Gorbachev Foundation be seized and turned over to a new Finance Academy. He left 1, 000 meters of the downtown premises to the foundation.
The foundation leases some of its space to outside groups, including political parties such as the People's Party of Free Russia, headed by Vice President Alexander Rutskoi. It also has a hard currency hotel, restaurant, and shops.
Yeltsin made the move in apparent anger both over Gorbachev's recent sharp criticisms of his government, as well as the former president's refusal to testify at the Constitutional Court in a trial to determine the legality of Yeltsin's decrees banning Communist Party activities.
Gorbachev was forbidden to leave the country on Oct. 2 after his refusal-to testify. He had to cancel a trip to South Korea as a result.
France's ambassador to Russia, Pierre Morell, also expressed his concern over the treatment of Gorbachev in a message delivered to the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday, Reuters reported. Additionally, two of Italy's governing parties and the country's main opposition group asked Russia Friday to lift the travel ban to allow Gorbachev to make a planned trip to Italy this week.
Gorbachev is due to leave for Italy on Oct. 14 and told reporters last week he was still planning the trip. He is expected to meet Pope John Paul II.
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