America Abroad: What's Wrong with Yalta II

What's Wrong with Yalta II

Mikhail Gorbachev has a nightmare, and it keeps coming true. In various corners of the world's last empire, demonstrators wave placards, some of them bearing Gorbachev's portrait; they hurl slogans, including some he made famous; they taunt troops, all of whom he commands from Moscow. Shouts lead to shots, and a riot becomes an enactment of Gorbachev's greatest dilemma: the relaxation of control can also mean disorder, which in turn can provoke repression, reversing reform and jeopardizing the political survival of the reformer. Last week it happened in Tbilisi. Next week, or next month, it could happen outside the borders of...

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