Ivashov Charges Gorbachov with Neglect of Western 1989 Geopolitics

In an exclusive interview with Ria Novosti (which, so far, is published only in its German-language version, not the English), Leonid Ivashov, former head of the international relations department at the Russian Defense Ministry, criticized former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachov for his appeasement toward NATO, which led to an otherwise avoidable strategic disadvantage for the Soviets in 1989-1990. Ivashov does not mention here, that the enemy was not NATO as such; it was (and still is) London-run imperial geopolitics.

"When the Soviet troops were pulled out from Germany, the Soviet state leadership and later on the one of Russia made serious political mistakes," Ivashov said. "Gorbachov and [USSR Foreign Minister Eduard] Shevardnadze did everything to please the West. I have seen how good positions were given up. Instead, one should have sought compromises that were acceptable to all parties of the process. One should have talked about the status of Germany, the non-expansion of NATO, and the pull-out of the Alliance from Germany. NATO was willing to discuss that."

Gorbachov claimed, said Ivashov, that "all of these concessions were made to him verbally. What kind of untalented leader that is, who does not grasp the nature of the geopolitical struggle and does not see the necessity to lay down all these verbal concessions in binding documents."

"Being a managing director of the defense ministry (1987 to 1992), I together with financial experts calculated what the troop pull-out would cost us, and we arrived at a sum of more than 100 billion dollars," Ivashov added. "Gorbachov personally cut this sum down to a tenth." German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Gorbachov then signed a treaty which gave the Soviet-Russians 12 billion German marks, of which 8 billion were used to build 45,000 homes or flats for Red Army officers in Russia.