Gorbachev's life.. 6 situations that made him a Western "icon". #usa #ukrain #uk

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian president who was closer to the West than the Russians, was gone, some considered him the maker of democracy there, and some considered him a traitor. After tension and confrontation during the decades-long Cold War, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II. Gorbachev struck arms control agreements with the United States and established partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War II, and played a role in German reunification. What are the most prominent orientations of the late Gorbachev with the West? with Eastern European countries When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc countries in communist Eastern Europe in 1989, unlike previous Kremlin leaders who sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, he refrained from using force. But the protests fueled aspirations for autonomy in 15 republics of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated over the next two years in a chaotic manner. Gorbachev, who was briefly ousted by Communist Party hardliners in a coup in August 1991, tried to prevent this collapse, but his efforts were unsuccessful.

Western European friend Gorbachev attempted to improve relations with Britain, France, and West Germany and, like previous Soviet leaders, was interested in pulling Western Europe away from American influence. He called for greater pan-European cooperation, and spoke openly of a "common European homeland" and Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals". Gorbachev's relations with Western European leaders were much warmer than those of his counterparts in the Eastern Bloc. Nuclear concessions After the failure of previous talks with the United States, in February 1987, Gorbachev held a conference in Moscow entitled "For a world free of nuclear weapons, for the survival of the human race", which was attended by many international celebrities and politicians. By publicly pushing for nuclear disarmament, Gorbachev sought to give the Soviet Union a moral high ground and weaken the West's self-perception of moral superiority. Realizing that US President Ronald Reagan would not budge on the Strategic Defense Initiative, Gorbachev focused on reducing the "intermediate-range nuclear powers", which Reagan accepted. Gorbachev agreed to remove the SS-23 missiles and allow US inspectors to visit Soviet military facilities to ensure compliance. There was hostility to such concessions by the Soviet Army. In December 1987, Gorbachev visited Washington, D.C., where he and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It was described as "one of the highest points in Gorbachev's career". The depth of friendship with Washington After the nuclear treaties, the former Russian president's relationship with Washington began to grow stronger, even reaching the point of "friendship". The second US-Soviet summit was held in Moscow in 1988, which Gorbachev expected to be largely symbolic. Once again, he and Reagan criticized each other, but Gorbachev said they spoke on "friendly terms". They reached an agreement on notifying each other before conducting ballistic missile tests and made agreements on transportation, hunting and radio navigation. Reagan then told reporters that he no longer considered the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and the two revealed that they considered themselves friends.

life of the stars Unlike previous leaders of the Communist Party, Gorbachev decided to pursue a life of "stardom" after the end of his presidency, and began traveling on luxurious trips and lecturing in large sums, around the world. Gorbachev began lecturing at the international level, and charged large fees for it. On a visit to Japan, he was received and awarded several honorary degrees. In 1992, he toured the United States on a Forbes private jet to raise money for his own foundation. During the trip he met with the Reagan family on a family visit. From there he went to Spain, where he attended the 92nd World Expo in Seville and met Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, with whom he became a friend. He also visited Israel and Germany, where many politicians greeted him warmly and praised his role in facilitating German reunification. His embrace of capitalism The former Russian president did not hesitate to embrace the life of capitalism, and was an advertising face for many American companies, such as restaurants and technology companies. Gorbachev has appeared in commercials such as a television commercial for Pizza Hut, image ads for Apple computers, and advertisements for Louis Vuitton. In the end, many Russians did not forgive Gorbachev for the turmoil caused by his reforms, considering the subsequent decline in living standards to be too high a price for democracy. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in a part occupied by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, said Gorbachev "deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its demise" and called him a traitor.