Pro-Kremlin commentators criticise Gorbachev’s legacy of ‘instability’

‘We are still correcting his mistakes,’ says one Russian parliamentarian

Pro-Kremlin commentators and politicians criticised the legacy of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while his death received muted coverage in Russia’s state-owned media.

Gorbachev’s passing was the first item on Russia’s flagship Channel One news bulletin, where a five-minute retrospective emphasised his common touch and desire to improve the Soviet economy, while suggesting he lacked decisiveness and trusted the United States too much.

A morning bulletin on another channel, Rossiya 24, took 12 minutes before covering the news, relegating it to third place behind an educational forum in Moscow and a planned visit by the UN nuclear watchdog to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant near the front line of fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday aged 91, drew huge admiration in the west for his pivotal role in ending the Cold War peacefully but many in Russia revile him for presiding over the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Rossiya 1 presenter Olga Skabeyeva, an enthusiastic Kremlin propagandist, walked viewers through western coverage of the his passing with trademark disdain.

“Look! The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Bild. All our enemies are calling Gorbachev a reformer and a real man of the world who helped to unite Europe by destroying the Iron Curtain,” she said.

Ms Skabeyeva turned to a less laudatory report from China’s Global Times which she said “highlights the naivete and immaturity of Gorbachev whose devotion to the West plunged [Russia] into an era of economic and political instability”.

She went on: “But it would probably be indecent to talk about that on the day of his death.”

Sergei Mironov, leader of the A Just Russia political party, was more frank. The former chair of the Russian parliament’s upper house said: “For the Soviet people, he became a breath of fresh air and a hope for colossal changes.

“Everything turned out differently: we lost a wonderful country, instead of order came chaos. Today we are correcting and will certainly correct Gorbachev's mistakes.”

Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, expressed his condolences but said the country was still dealing with the consequences of Gorbachev's “perestroika” reforms.

“It fell to Gorbachev to lead the country in a very difficult period, to face many external and internal challenges, for which an adequate response was not found,” he said.

In the Kremlin-controlled press, reaction to Gorbachev's death was restrained. Populist tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a tribute to the Soviet Union's last leader, though it acknowledged that Gorbachev’s critics at home would seek to undo his legacy.

“But they won't be able to. Mikhail Sergeyevich [Gorbachev] has done too much. He changed the world too irreversibly for his ideological opponents,” the paper wrote.

Vladimir Putin, who has led Russia far away from the path laid by Gorbachev, issued a condolence telegram claiming that Gorbachev had a “huge impact on the world history”.