Group of deputies wants Gorbachev investigated over Soviet break-up

[Adrahil]

Source: Reuters

By Gabriela Baczynska

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A small group of lawmakers have asked Russia's top prosecutor to investigate whether the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, should face treason charges over his role in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev dismissed the request as an act of publicity-seeking and said there were no grounds to charge him.

It follows a surge of patriotism since Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last month, which has revived nostalgia among some Russians for the Soviet Union and boosted President Vladimir Putin's popularity ratings.

The seven-page request for an investigation says Gorbachev and other senior Soviet officials violated the law and the will of the people by letting the republics that made up the Soviet Union declare independence and break away.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/group-deputies-wants-gorbachev-investigated-over-soviet-break-124523136.html

[Kelvin Mace]

1. How can you be tried for treason

against a country which no longer exists? It would be like being arrested in Alabama for treason against the Confederacy.

On the second thoughts, probably a bad example.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. My immediate question.

Of course, Putin still wishes the USSR exists. Not based on any ideological grounds, but simply for imperial purposes.

[uhnope]

3. I thought Gorbachev was probably under pressure in Russia

when I saw that he gave lip service to Putin's Crimea grab. Now I see that I was right--Gorbachev probably fears some show trial and being sent to the gulag if the right wing of Russia continues its rampage