Not responsible for break-up: Gorbachev

MOSCOW, AUG. 19. A decade after the abortive hardline coup was directed against him this day, the former Russian President, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, has refused to accept responsibility for the fragmentation of the USSR, saying such claims were designed to put the blame for everything on his back.

In an interview to the media here, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary marking the failed August putsch of 1991, Mr. Gorbachev said he had committed ``a mistake by failing to introduce an early reform of the Soviet Communist party and the Soviet Union in general.'' He put the blame for the disintegration of the Soviet empire, four months later, on the state of emergency committee (GKCHP) members, a caucus of KGB-led hardline coup leaders, who wanted to restore authoritarian rule to retain their influence and privileges shrinking under his `glasnost' and `perestroika' reforms.

Several allies of the former President, Mr. Boris Yeltsin, also put the blame for the breakup of the USSR on the GKCHP. At a round-table discussion, Mr. Ruslan Khasbulatov, former Speaker of the Russian Parliament, said the demise of the Soviet Union had been ``predetermined'' and the 1991 coup only brought it nearer.

``The GKCHP members had some sound ideas,'' he said adding there had been many doubtful provisions in the new treaty on the formation of the USSR, which 15 constituent republics were offered to sign in 1991.

The former Soviet Vice-President and putsch plotter, Mr. Gennady Yanayev, said Mr. Gorbachev was in agreement with leaders of the failed coup on the need for a state of emergency.

``The direction in which the country was going had on several occasions placed before Gorbachev the necessity of taking effective measures to stabilise the situation. And Gorbachev had been in agreement with us,'' Mr. Yanayev told the Russian daily Kommersant.

On the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, Mr. Gorbachev said that he supported Mr. Putin as much as he opposed Mr. Yeltsin.

``I support Putin and his work. What he has already done is inspiring,'' he said adding Mr. Putin was keen to live up to the credibility mandate he had received during the last presidential election.

He dismissed allegations that Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, had an autocratic streak, saying the President was committed to democratic values. ``I told the President that many people are concerned that a new authoritarian regime may emerge,'' he said, adding, ``he responded that he stands for law and order, a strong court system and multiple political parties.''

- PTI

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Section  : International
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