Mikhail Gorbachev accuses US of stoking ‘new Cold War’

Former Soviet leader says America is “tortured by triumphalism” as Ukraine rebels agree partial ceasefire with government troops

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev Credit: Photo: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP

Mikhail Gorbachev has claimed that American "triumphalism" is stoking a new Cold War and called for "avid militarists” to stop dragging Europe into conflict.

The former Soviet leader spoke out as Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels agreed to a partial ceasefire in the civil war in the east of the country, which has killed at least 4,300 people since a Moscow-backed uprising broke out in April.

Mr Gorbachev said there was still time to defuse the standoff between Moscow and the West, as he and his western counterparts had done during the Perestroika period.

“Now there are once again signs of a Cold War,” he said in an interview with Tass, the state-owned news agency. “This process can and must be stopped. After all, we did it in the 1980s. We opted for de-escalation, for the reunification (of Germany). And back then it was a lot tougher than now. So we could do it again.”

Mr Gorbachev, 83, who has run a civil society foundation since he retired from politics, said he thought the United States was largely to blame for the confrontation today. “I don’t want to praise our government too much,” he said. “It has also made quite a few errors, but today the danger comes from the American position. They are tortured by triumphalism.”

The former Soviet president did not mention Ukraine explicitly but hinted at the conflict, where western states support the pro-European government while Russia has thrown its weight behind rebels in the Russophone east of the country.

“It’s a good thing that the president [Vladimir Putin] has taken care of security, strengthened our defence potential, developed weaponry and upgraded the army,” he said. “Now we are armed, so if it necessary we can respond in kind. But I think that is not our task now. Signs of a new Cold War have appeared and the whole process must be stopped.”

It was “not too late” to ratchet down the confrontation, he said. The right people would “be found” in Europe to build a new world order and halt the “avid militarists”. “For now it is going in the opposite direction,” he added.

In one potentially positive sign, representatives of Ukraine and the Luhansk People’s Republic, or LNR, one of two break-away statelets proclaimed by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, said they had agreed “in principle” to a cessation of hostilities beginning on Friday.

"All agreed in principle to a total ceasefire along the entire line of contact between Ukrainian Armed Forces and those under control of the (Lugansk People's Republic), to be effective from December 5," the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement late on Monday.

The two sides also agreed to a withdrawal of heavy weapons beginning on Saturday, the statement added.

The agreement comes three months after a Russian and European brokered ceasefire agreement was signed in Minsk.

While the September 5 Minsk accord brought an end to some of the most serious violence, it has seen repeated violations and in some areas has broken down completely.

The agreement announced by the OSCE would affect an area of front running east to west from the Russian border to the north of the rebel stronghold of Luhansk.

It presumably would not affect ongoing fighting at Donetsk airport, the road and rail junction of Debaltsevo, and the sea port of Mariupol, where the rebel lines are held by the Donetsk People’s Republic, the LNR’s sister-statelet.

Russian and Ukrainian media reported on Monday that Ukrainian and Russian generals had met near Donetsk airport to discuss a truce, and that negotiations would resume on Tuesday.

Correspondents have said fighting near the airport has intensified in recent days.

Intermittent shelling could still be heard in Donetsk after the ceasefire announced by Mr Purgin was meant to come into force.