If Gorbachev had Followed Trump, the USSR Would Not have Fallen Apart Because Republics Couldn’t have Afforded to Leave, Krylov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 6 – Had Mikhail Gorbachev acted like Donald Trump, “most likely” the USSR would not have disintegrated and “relations with the US would have been arranged without our shameful total capitulation,” according to Anton Krylov in a Vzglyad commentary (vz.ru/opinions/2020/1/6/1016981.html).

            Consequently, “it is very sad that a politician with the ideas of Donald Trump about justice was not at the head of the USSR or Russia during the period of the disintegration of the country,” he argues. Had there been, everything would have been not only different but much better.

            In his article, Krylov makes clear what he has in mind:  Such a Trumpian leader of the Soviet Union would have said to the non-Russian republics (and Eastern bloc countries as well): ‘You want us to give you independence? Of course, this isn’t a question; just pay up, if you please” for all we’ve invested in you.

            If the republics respond but our people “also participated in this construction,” the Trumpian Soviet leader “would say “’fine, we’ll give you a discount equal to your percentage contribution to the total GDP of the USSR for the last year.” 

            According to Krylov, this is just one of many opportunities that Trump’s innovation in requiring Iraq to pay for US investment in that country before the US will leave. Other countries could and should take advantage of this idea as well, including Great Britain and the European Union member states.