FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Gorby gab . . . The job market . . .
I got the Gorbachev embrace; a big Russian paw pulling me into a Perestroika moment; a bear hug and a slew of Russian words lost in translation.
Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev sat down for a few words with Sneed Tuesday, while drinking Russian tea from a coffee cup and confiding that his American hero (“of my generation”) was President John F. Kennedy.
“Good man. A man of courage. It is what is needed today.”
Thus spake (via translator) this bear of a man, the courageous former communist turned peacenik who dismantled Soviet communism and netted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
Although Gorbachev’s comfort level chiefly involves political discourse, he opened a little window into his private life Tuesday while in town for the summit of fellow Peace Prize winners. Gorbachev . . .
Is not a big fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s macho press photo poses.
“I have posed for pictures, but not with Siberian tigers.”
Is a fan of President Barack Obama. “Do you like him? I do.”
Does not like America’s plans for a missile system in Europe.
“I’m worried about it. America knows no one wants to go to war against the United States. Our countries need to cooperate. President Eisenhower went to war against the military industrial complex.”
Lives in Moscow with his daugh- ter, Irina, and his grandchildren.
“My daughter, Irina, was cautious about my coming,” said Gorbachev, who is 81. “I have had surgeries. She takes good care of me.”
Once had a special hobby: walking “6 kilometers an HOUR every day for 40 years” with his beloved wife, Raisa, who died in 1999. “Now I come at life in a different way than I did as a younger man.”
Introduced “Glasnost” and “Perestroika” to the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the end of the Cold War and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.
“I knew something big was being done by us. The world needed what happened.”
Is not a religious man. “Nyet. But it’s good the [Orthodox] church has revived. But only time will show its real value.”
Does U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have his gun sights on becoming the next Dartmouth College president? Whaaaaaa?
Mandela,