Germany’s Bundestag parliament held a minute’s silence on Wednesday to commemorate former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who passed away at the age of 91 last week.
“President Gorbachev was a man of peace – he changed the world for the better,” Bundestag President Bärbel Bas said.
“He made possible what seemed unthinkable for decades: ending the Cold War peacefully and overcoming the division of our country and our continent.”
“We Germans owe a lot to Mikhail Gorbachev,” she added.
Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, from 1985 to 1991.
Bas said that Gorbachev had overseen a transition from a century marked by confrontation and nuclear deterrence to one marked by peaceful change and the formation of trust.
“We in Germany have also wished for a trusting partnership with Russia – I say with great regret that a partnership with Russia is not possible at present,” Bas said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent war.
Bas acknowledged that consecutive German governments had been in denial about the geopolitical goals of the Russian leadership.
“We Germans have taken Gorbachev’s striving for understanding, peace and partnership for granted as the basis of our relationship with Russia,” she said.
“In doing so, we overlooked or perhaps did not want to acknowledge that Russia under (Russian President Vladimir) Putin had long and radically turned away from Gorbachev’s goals,” she added.
Also on Thursday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier signed a book of condolence for the late former Soviet leader.
“I bow before a great statesman in deep gratitude for his decisive contribution to German unity,” Steinmeier wrote during a visit to Berlin city hall alongside Mayor Franziska Giffey.
“He inspired and encouraged many people in our country,” Steinmeier wrote.
He is revered in the West for launching “perestroika,” the broad restructuring of the communist system that led to the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev is, however, blamed by some Russians for giving free rein to crime, soaring prices, and social insecurity. (dpa/NAN)
