Gorbachev turns 80, sharply criticizes Kremlin over human rights

Mar 2, 2011, 12:04 GMT

Moscow - Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Soviet-era president Mikhail Gorbachev turned 80 Wednesday and used the occasion to sharply criticize the current Kremlin leadership over human rights.

In remarks reported by the Interfax agency, Gorbachev specifically named President Dmitry Medvedev and Premier Vladimir Putin, saying that under them there had been an 'attack on the freedoms and rights of the people.'

His remarks came as 'Gorbi' was inviting guests to celebrate his birthday with non-alcoholic beverages, in keeping with his strict anti-alcohol convictions.

Meanwhile the opinions inside Russia about the former Soviet leader, who tried to reform the communist system with his policies of 'glasnost' (openness) and 'perestroika' (restructuring) in the late 1980s, remained divided.

Twenty years since Gorbachev left the political stage, historians and political scientists are still debating his role in history.

Communist Party leader Gennadi Syganov called Gorbachev a 'traitor' and 'destroyer' who with his mistakes ushered in the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Political scientist Vyatcheslav Nikonov noted about Gorbachev, 'he opened the floodgates to freedom.'

But Gorbachev's most serious mistake, Nikonov said, was holding firmly to the old communist planned economy system. China, for its part, has with its move towards a market economy shown the path that the Soviet Union could have gone, the university professor said.

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