When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Russia

Gorbachev To Putin: Your Time Is Up

The 80-year-old former Soviet leader says Vladimir Putin's best days are behind him. Putin, Russia's current prime minister, is hoping to regain the presidency in next month's election.

Gorbachev will be 81 next month (Veni Markovski)
Gorbachev will be 81 next month (Veni Markovski)

MOSCOW – Less than a month before Russia's presidential election, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev used a public lecture to both criticize the candidacy of Vladimir Putin and offer his services to monitor the vote.

Speaking at Moscow's International University, Gorbachev said Putin had done "some useful things' but that the current prime minister now the presidential frontrunner had "exhausted" his reserves of leadership of the country.

Instead, the 80-year-old Gorbachev said it was time to find "solid candidates' for the Duma, the Russian parliament, instead of appointments through nepotism.

A Nobel peace prize winner who served from 1985 to 1991 as the last leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev also said he was available to help run the Voters' League, which was set up last month to promote a fair election and monitor against fraud at the polls. It was the Voters' League coined the slogan "for fair elections," which was used at the rallies that brought tens of thousands out onto the streets last weekend.

"Yes, I would have agreed to head the League of Voters. If the situation does not change after the elections, we will go out into the streets," Gorbachev said.

The monitoring group said it had received a "strange letter" from Putin's team, requesting that it send a representative it could work with during the election campaign.

Last month, while in London, Gorbachev criticized Russia's electoral system, saying it needed a "major readjustment."

Read the full article in Russian by Maria Makutina

Photo - Veni Markovski

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Worldcrunch Magazine #37 — Iran And The Taliban: The Drug Connection
Worldcrunch

This is the latest edition of Worldcrunch Magazine, a selection of our best articles of the week from the best international journalists, produced exclusively in English for Worldcrunch readers.

>> DISCOVER IT HERE <<

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest