Gorbachev, an unlikely rights champion focus 03/02/2011

Gorbachev, an unlikely rights champion

focus

03/02/2011
MOSCOW — Mikhail Gorbachev allowed new freedoms in the Soviet Union but for many Russian observers his embrace of human rights was due to Western and other pressures rather than ideological conviction.

In contrast to the eulogies lavished on Gorbachev in the West, Russian historians ahead of his 80th birthday on Wednesday pointed to his willingness to use force against separatism and insistence on the supremacy of the Communist Party.

He even showed a highly equivocal attitude on the question of political prisoners, like the scientist Andrei Sakharov who was placed under house arrest in 1980 under the rule of Leonid Brezhnev and whom Gorbachev freed in 1986.

“When he freed Sakharov and other dissidents, Gorbachev was not guided by moral considerations,” said historian and former dissident Vladimir Toltz. “He did not free them because it’s bad to leave one’s opponents in prison but because it was in his interest.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110302com3.html