Mikhail Gorbachev: Russia is still on the way to democracy

Former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev says all Russian structures are lacking independence and Russia is only halfway on the path toward democracy.

     “Our institutions – political parties, State Duma, courts – are lacking one thing, that is independence, free statements and judgments,” Gorbachev told a roundtable “The Politics of the 21^st Century: the Experience of Russian-German Relations and New Options” on Friday. “It is useless to speak about Russia without taking into account the fact that we are in terms of a democratic transit and have covered half of the way at most,” he said. “If you fail to take this into account, you can’t make a realistic analysis, and there will be no cooperation [with western partners],” he said. It is necessary to intensify discussions within Russian society, and these discussions will later translate into concrete projects, he said.

Interfax