Liberty Medal

Gorbachev gets Liberty Medal tonight

When former President George H.W. Bush bestows the Liberty Medal on former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tonight at the National Constitution Center, it will be a short-lived nostalgia trip back to the good old days of Russian-American relations.

Bush, who bonded with Gorbachev as they slammed shut the door on the Cold War, will personally drape the ribbon around the neck of his old friend. Their sentimental moment will be accompanied on piano by Van Cliburn, the wunderkind who won Russian hearts in 1958, at a time when deep friendships between such high-ranking superpower officials were unimaginable.

But the happy reunion that will play out at the Constitution Center belies the growing discord today between the United States and the newly ascendant, oil-rich, muscle-flexing, mostly capitalist Russia of Vladimir V. Putin. Indeed, relations between the two countries, analysts agree, haven't been this frosty since Comrade Gorbachev took over the Soviet Union in 1985.

In an interview last night that hinted at some of the themes he intends to take up in this evening's speech, Gorbachev placed the blame for the current chill with Russia squarely on the current Bush administration. The partnership Gorbachev initiated in the 1980s began to fall apart, he said, with the international arm-twisting that this President Bush used to start the war in Iraq.

"This administration wants everyone to follow suit, allies and others," Gorbachev complained. "America needs its own perestroika," he said, using the Russian word for restructuring that became the signature of his tenure as the Soviet Union's last leader.

"You have to open your windows more often," said Gorbachev, a fit-looking 75. "The world is different. There must be the beginning of change."

Gorbachev's frank remarks echoed the high-profile essays he published in the American press last month after the crisis in Georgia erupted.

Despite the warm reception planned for Gorbachev tonight, it will be hard to overlook the irony that he has become one of the staunchest defenders of Russia's military incursion, which he described as a humanitarian effort.

Though U.S.-Russian relations have been eroding for years, Russia's forceful behavior in the independent Republic of Georgia clearly sent both sides scrambling for their old Cold War playbooks. The simmering grievances have been magnified by the U.S. presidential campaign, with Republican John McCain declaring, "We are all Georgians," and then calling Democrat Barack Obama soft on Russia. It's been a while since anyone uttered those particular fighting words.

No one is suggesting Gorbachev should be denied the Liberty Medal, or its $100,000 prize, for criticizing America or for his implicit support of Russia's increasingly authoritarian and anti-Western leadership.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) brushed off the significance of Gorbachev's statements in an interview, saying, "I'm not surprised to see Mr. Gorbachev support his country."

But others, such as Stanford University professor Michael McFaul, a noted Russia expert who is advising Obama, admitted he was surprised by the tone of Gorbachev's essays - even though he shares his view that "we let the Russians down" on promises to rebuild their economy. When former President George H.W. Bush bestows the Liberty Medal on former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tonight at the National Con... more

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