Gorbachev the gradualist could not deliver. He had unleashed forces he could not control. His situation was made much more difficult by the facile advice poured into Russia by ill-informed western economists, ideologues and even statesmen – all telling Russian leaders that they only had to lift all controls and the markets would produce the goods.

There are two Russias.

There is the Russia of glittering art, brilliant innovation, beautiful literature and with ponderous but steady advance towards freedom, democracy, of a sort, and a responsible role in the affairs of a world of whose landmass it occupies such an enor.

And there is the Russia of winner-takes-all brutality, corruption, crime, extortion and monopoly greed, inward-looking, unco-operative, aggressive and paranoiac.

By David Howell

Read more on http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/David-Howell-Twentyfive-years-on.6140901.jp

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