I Have Big Plans

Gorbachev bows out for now, but says he does not intend to close the curtains on his career just yet

Is Mikhail Gorbachev already planning a comeback? The former Soviet leader certainly gave that impression when he turned up at Moscow's swank Oktyabr Hotel for a farewell party the day after his resignation. Looking tired but relaxed, Gorbachev mingled with former aides and Moscow journalists, signing autographs, exchanging lemon vodka toasts and cracking jokes. "My mother has been telling me for a long time to give it all up and come home," he quipped. But anyone who believes the ex-President is going to slip quietly away to a dacha to write his memoirs or putter about in the garden could be...

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