Gorbachev’s long journey to anti-Putinism

As has been widely reported today, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has called for a re-vote in Russia’s parliamentary elections, saying, "The country’s leaders must admit there were numerous falsifications and rigging and the results do not reflect the people’s will."

The country’s leaders are unlikely to take this call all the seriously, given Gorbachev’s much-diminished stature in Russian politics. But it’s interesting to trace the trajectory of Gorbachev’s attitude toward Russia’s ruling tandem.

When Putin first came to power, the former leader praised him effusively, saying in 2001, "What he has been able to do over the past year inspires me." He was not so kind to Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin, of whom he reflected that in retrospect he should have sent him "to some banana republic" when he had the chance in 1991. 

Gorbachev was mostly supportive of Putin throughout his first presidency, though there were early signs of a break in 2006 when he bought a stake in Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s leading independent newspaper, which has been highly critical of the Kremlin and often seen its reporters targeted for harassment as a result. 

Nonetheless, Gorbachev continued to praise Putin in 2007, crediting him with having "pulled Russia out of chaos." The next year, he criticized opposition groups for holding anti-government demonstrations that woud only "complicate the situation in the country and push for instability."

In 2007, Gorbachev tried to have it both ways, praising Putin but criticizing his party and the political system he helped shape. 

"I am on Putin’s side. I do not hold high respect toward the State Duma [the lower house of parliament]. But I think Putin has rendered great service to Russia," Gorbachev told a news conference in Moscow. … "I dislike this party, it is not a people’s party," the ex-Soviet leader said.

Gorbachev also criticized the jailing of chessmaster and Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov. 

In 2008, after former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was disqualified from presidential elections, eliminating virtually the only credible opposition alternative to Dmitry Medvedev, Gorbachev called for electoral reforms, saying,  “Something is wrong with our elections, and our electoral system needs a major adjustment.”

The criticism of United Russia got even stronger in 2009, when Gorvachev called it "a party of bureaucrats and the worst version of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."

While he once shied away from criticizing Putin directly, Gorbachev showed no such reservations by 2010:

“He thinks that democracy stands in his way,” Mr. Gorbachev said.

“I am afraid that they have been saddled with this idea that this unmanageable country needs authoritarianism,” Mr. Gorbachev said, referring to Mr. Putin and his close ally, President Dmitri A. Medvedev. “They think they cannot do without it.”

Of course, given that 20 percent of Russians feel actively hostile toward Gorbachev, 47 percent of Russians "don’t care about him at all," and only 5 percent admire him, it’s easy to wonder how much his late-in-life reinvention as a dissident has to do with realizing that his main constituency is now outside his home country.