Gorbachev was amazed at the war with Ukraine, but did not comment on the aggression of the Russian Federation - the translator of the Secretary General

A translator Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with the late Soviet President of 37 years, told this in a comment to Reuters in a comment to Reuters. According to Palazhchenko, he spoke with Gorbachev a few weeks ago and was amazed at how injured he was in Ukraine. "All the evolution of relations between Russia and Ukraine in recent years has become a very great blow to him. It really crushed him emotionally and psychologically," the translator said.

"In our conversations, it became quite obvious that he was shocked and puzzled What happened (after the Russian invasion in February) for various reasons. He not only believed in the proximity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, he believed that these two nations were mixed. " The former Secretary General came to this conclusion, in particular, because his wife lived in Ukraine. In this case, Gorbachev decided not to comment on Russian aggression, with one exception.

In February, he approved a statement that contains a call for the early termination of hostilities and solving humanitarian problems. According to Pavel Palazhchenko, Mikhail Gorbachev's position on Ukraine was complex and controversial, because the late politician still believed in the idea of ​​the Soviet Union.

"Of course, a kind of mental map for him and for most people of his political generation, there is still some imaginary country, which includes most of the former Soviet Union," Plazchenko said, emphasizing that Gorbachev would not have waged war to restore a country that does not exist now. The translator reminded that in the last months of the USSR the Soviet troops have repeatedly used force against citizens of republics who were fighting for independence.

Lithuanian and Latvia's policies are blaming Gorbachev directly of bloodshed. In response, Palazhchenko noted that Gorbachev believed in solving problems solely by political means. Therefore, he either did not know about some of these bloody episodes, or "extremely reluctantly" sanctioned the use of force to prevent chaos. Recall that in 2014, Mikhail Gorbachev called the occupation of Crimea by Russian troops a "happy event".