29.09.08

Ex-USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev holds that the United States needs a new model of development. "I said more than once that all the problems stem from the fact that the Americans have not carried through their perestroika," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"The Americans are now in a fix; all their wars have resulted in a mess," Gorbachev said. "That world, that system of relations are coming to an end, there is a need to live in a new world, and nothing can be decided by power in new conditions."

The former Soviet leader who is just back from a trip to the United States believes that despite all the rhetoric Washington comes to understand the situation, the more so as the change of administration is ahead.

"There is no reason to make far-reaching conclusions from the pronouncements of members of the current administration: it is on the way out," Gorbachev said, adding that its representatives, certainly, "have their own dependencies and obligations." Therefore, he believes, Russia's response should be "adequate."

"I would not take a simplistic view of the situation, pretending that we don't hear anything and that we don't care. But I would not draw the conclusion either that a new anti-Russian bloc is being formed there, that weapons are readied and bayonets sharpened," the ex-president said, commenting on the latest pronouncements of American politicians. "This is just a polemic; the nerves of our partners are wearing thin."

Gorbachev said he got convinced of this from the conversation with George Bush, Sr., when the entire set of problems was discussed quite calmly. "He, surely, does not make decisions, but his judgements are important, as they reflect the awareness that we must continue a dialogue and form a new agenda," said the ex-president of the USSR. For "the attempt to create a unipolar world, to act disregarding international law has not lead anywhere."

The former Soviet leader also stressed that Russia is interested in continuing a dialogue with a future US administration. "We must build relations with any US administration," Gorbachev said.

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Source: Itar-Tass