Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who spearheaded liberal reforms in the late 1980s, believes that the United States should follow his example.
“It seems to me that America needs its own perestroika,” he said at a crowded book signing in downtown Moscow, Interfax reported Tuesday.
Gorbachev’s twin policies of glasnost and perestroika transformed Soviet life, opening the Soviet economy to market forces and easing restrictions on culture and expression.
Critics blame his policies for the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse, and many Russians still hold him partly responsible for the chaotic decade that followed.
His new book, “Alone With Myself,” a memoir, contains memories of his late wife, Raisa, as well as a firsthand account of the final years of the Soviet Union.
He said he plans to write one more book, in which he’ll share his observations on post-Soviet Russia, RIA-Novosti reported.
Gorbachev, 81, co-owns the oppositional Novaya Gazeta newspaper and has at times been a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin.
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