| www.euronews.com You might think 20 years after the demise of the Soviet Union the then-leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, would surely be relegated to the cast of political "has beens". But even without an active political role, he remains a firm fixture of Russian social life. Increasingly critical of Putin's ruling style he has often advised him to step down. euronews' Moscow correspondent Alexandre Shashkov met him to talk about the latest elections, and recent and yet-to-come social changes. Alexandre Shashkov: "The presidential elections are behind us, and now it's clear that in 2 months Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin will switch places. What do you think of the electoral campaign and the results of these elections?" Mikhail Gorbachev: "What's different in these elections from the previous ones, is that during the electoral campaign it became clear that society is emerging from a kind of vegetative state. People are starting to influence the agndas of the Prime Minister, future President, and Duma as well. The questions of serious change of the system, its democratization, and general reforms to make the electoral system better, remain high on the agenda. Because before, and this often angered me, the system got reformed in a way that only made it worse. It rejected the person, and pushed them out of the electoral process. Now it has to be vice versa, the system must be inclusive, and President Medvedev, in his last days in office, proposed a Constitutional Assembly, to ... |
