Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says that he’s working on a strategy of stabilizing the international situation by introducing a new effective global dialogue platform to augment the “lame UN.”
“Serious-minded world circles” have asked him to come up
with such a platform during the celebrations of the 25th
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall earlier in November,
said Gorbachev, 83.
“It’s going to be a very big thing. There’ll be first steps
and second steps, aimed for it to become a global platform for
discussion of problems. It must be very representative, capable
of influencing both state and international institutions,
authoritative because the UN is, unfortunately, lame at the
moment,” Gorbachev said during the Moscow presentation of
his new book, “After the Kremlin.”
He said his platform “would calm the world, would stop things
that are going on, would rule out such bloody events."
"Real institutions must be created in a global world, that
would help the United Nations in decision-making, in drafting
these decisions," Gorbachev said. "Things will fail
without civil institutions that would incorporate people's
wisdom."
Gorbachev declined to give any names, but said that the creation
of the dialogue platform will be discussed with “very
experienced people, respected by global public opinion."
Thursday’s book presentation gathered a huge crowd, with hundreds
lining up in the street outside the bookshop to get an autograph
from the author, Tass news agency reported.
Despite his age, Gorbachev assured those who came that he’s in
good health and his spirits remain high.
He said that coped with the pressure on him after the fall of
Soviet Union in 1991, and plans “to keep living.”
“I invite you to my 90th birthday. I’m sure we’ll be celebrating
it,” he said.
Gorbachev came back into spotlight in recent months, making
several high-profile comments on international events.
He called Russia’s incorporation of Ukraine’s Republic of Crimea
a correction of a Soviet-era mistake, condemned Kiev’s military
operation in southeastern Ukraine and called US President Barack
Obama “a lame duck” for finishing his second White House
term in a “mediocre” way.