Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and the last president of the USSR celebrated his 85th birthday anniversary. A jubilee for 150 guests was widely celebrated in Moscow in the restaurant of the hotel ‘Radisson’. However, pizza, which was so well advertised by the ex-president of the USSR in Europe, was not served there. The dishes were limited with exquisite meat and fish appetizers, second courses. Wine, of course, was not flowing like water. Though Gorbachev sang to the accompaniment of Makarevich’s guitar the song of Claudia Shulzhenko ‘Old Letters.’ A microphone was obligingly kept by the ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. The US Ambassador John Tefft was listening to the song of the artist in a distance of two tables.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Gorbachev with the anniversary, calling the hero of the day ‘bright and not indifferent person’, ‘actively participating in social and political life.’ Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the former Soviet President. However the text of Gorbachev’s congratulation from Putin has not yet appeared for some reason on the official presidential information resource kremlin.ru . Nevertheless, the media knows well that in his congratulatory message President Putin noted the importance and relevance of professional qualities of the President of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies.
By the way, being in this post Gorbachev decided to celebrate the anniversary by a public action. On the eve of celebration in the restaurant ‘Radisson’ the president of the Gorbachev Foundation transferred to the account of the London Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) £ 50 thousand. The UK publication Independent in relation to such a wide charity of Gorbachev dedicated to this event a whole article, simultaneously reminding its readers about the anniversary of the ex- President of the USSR. (1) Independent reports that the money of Gorbachev will be spent on creation of a new 14-person department for treatment of children suffering from heart failure in the London Hospital, as well as to support the palliative care center.
However, according to the Independent, the basic needs of the London hospitals are provided with funding from the UK National Health System - the organization that is not poor, we shell note. Gorbachev's charitable action is not a single donation. It was part of a broad campaign of charity, provided by the British publication Independent.
In total, during a campaign organized by independent to raise funds for the hospital, in addition to Gorbachev’s 50 thousand, it was managed to collect £ 3,5 million. The large amounts for the children's hospital were provided by the British Ministry of Finance and a number of major corporations, including Morgan Stanley, Prudential and Deloitte . In addition to Gorbachev, in a personal list of contributors there are now the British Queen Elizabeth II, the ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, in the past the highest paid professional football player in the world David Beckham. It is obvious that Gorbachev’s donation of money to sick British children is due to his desire to find himself precisely in the high range of the British Queen, pop stars and football idol. Such companies are the purpose of the ex-president of the USSR, who, as one character from the feature film ‘Brother’ noted, ‘likes to hang out well, so that is why he organized ‘perestroika’.
It turns out that the charity campaign addressing GOSH was organized by ‘personal friends’ of Gorbachev - Independent’s owners Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev. Independent’s owner Alexander Lebedev also owns the UK publication Evening Standard. Obviously, that the British editions of Lebedev were acquired with the funds derived by them from Russia. So from this side, the former general secretary of the CPSU has appeared in a quite ‘decent’ to him company of the modern Russian offshore businessmen. Lebedevs father and son with their British charity obviously are trying to enter to the circle of the local elite. Vain efforts. It will not work. But in this case Mikhail Sergeevych appeared clearly on the useful wings of Lebedevs’.
The case of the £ 50 thousand Gorbachev’s donation for British children on their own anniversary identifies the most important psychological feature of the former president of the USSR - its complete insensitivity and political inadequacy of the current moment. Note that a charitable gesture of Gorbachev obviously would be appropriate in relation to sick children in some African country or, better still, in relation to children of Afghanistan. It could be understood and it could be possible to agree with it. Otherwise, the picture looks like this. The former politician, who dipped his country from the Second to the Third World, at the time of acute social and economic crisis in the country and surge in poverty is engaged in a broad charity towards children, even sick, but belonging to the ‘golden billion’. After all the wealthy UK without Gorbachev have the means to cure their children. They, incidentally, are partly derived from the Third World, and even without the ‘help’ of some Lebedev.
However, according to Independent, a similar to the Gorbachev’s British donation will be received by the Raisa Gorbacheva Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Transplantology in St. Petersburg. At least so, though it would be more appropriate to transfer funds of Gorbachev to some area, which in Russia suffered from Gorbachev— in some children's hospital in the Russian provinces, in some industry town.
So, Gorbachev has not learned any lessons of his inglorious political destiny and followed the ‘perestroika’ the tragic history of our country. Gorbachev’s grant to British children in our decaying reality - it is a suggestion of pastries to the Parisian Sansculottes of Marie Antoinette. It is appropriate to say about Gorbachev and his circle the words attributed to Talleyrand, just paraphrasing them: "He has learned nothing and understood nothing."
On the anniversary of Gorbachev British BBC arranged a quiz about the statements of Mikhail Sergeyevich, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, cleverly outlined the ‘wisdom’ of Gorbachev, compared with the latters. Voice of America ignored the anniversary of Gorbachev. The near-governmental Germany's Deutsche Welle also said not a word about the anniversary of the ‘best German’.
