Gorbachev Warns of New Cold War

Radio hobbyists have speculated that we may see the return of a Cold War in the radio scene ... Former General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev predicts the "world is on on the brink of a new Cold War."

The Brandenburg Gate, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 (photo/German Missions to the United States, Germany/MS State.edc)

Gorbachev Warns of New Cold War

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," U.S. President Ronald Reagan demanded in a 1987 speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. Some two and a half years later, on Nov. 9, 1989, Berliners flocked to the wall that severed East and West Berlin and did exactly that.

But as the city celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday, Reagan's catchy imploration is little more than a faint echo against a backdrop of blaring political tensions that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says have brought the world to the threshold of a "new Cold War."

Gorbachev, whose policies of glasnost and perestroika precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, defended Russian foreign policy in his speech at a symposium in Berlin on Saturday.

"The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some say that it has already begun," Gorbachev said on Saturday in comments carried by Reuters. "Euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of Western leaders. Taking advantage of Russia's weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination of the world."

Gorbachev, 83, also said that President Vladimir Putin's speech at the annual Valdai International Discussion Club forum in Sochi on Oct. 24 — which many analysts interpreted as an anti-Western tirade — in fact expressed the "desire to find a way to decrease tensions and ultimately build a new basis for partnership."

Additional story at Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/25-years-after-fall-of-berlin-wall-gorbachev-embraces-kremlin-narrative

VOA looks at the fall of the Berlin Wall

A radio, television, and Internet series looks back on the 20th anniversary Washington, D.C., November 3, 2009 – The Voice of America (VOA) will broadcast this week a radio, television and Internet series on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reports from the United States, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Africa will examine how this event on November 9, 1989 set a new course over the last 20 years for the world as we know it.

“Historically, this is a perfect time to look back at events and see how they have shaped our world today,” said VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch. “The fall of the Berlin Wall is recent enough for us to get eyewitness accounts, yet distant enough so that we can also get impressions from a whole new generation that has grown up in a democratic society.”

Why was the Berlin Wall a symbol of the Cold War? What prompted East German authorities to build it in the first place, and why did it ultimately collapse? What are some of the geopolitical ramifications of that momentous event? What do today’s Berliners remember about the Wall? These and other questions will be answered in a series of reports from VOA senior correspondent Andre de Nesnera in Washington and VOA correspondent Sonja Pace in Berlin.

From Europe, VOA correspondent Peter Fedynsky looks at the Solidarity Movement in 1980s Poland and what 20 years of freedom has meant for workers whose movement helped to bring down the Iron Curtain. Fedynsky also examines the mixed feelings many Hungarians have 20 years after Communism came to an end. While preparing his reports for this series, he was able to interview Hungarian and Polish young people who were born too late to know life under communism.

VOA’s Johannesburg correspondent Scott Bobb will file on how the collapse of the Berlin Wall affected the African continent. Washington-based VOA news writer Mark Snowiss answers the question, would the Wall and communism have collapsed on their own or did it result from U.S. policies?

Special coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall will be available at http://www.voanews.com/
(VOA)