Saint Gorbachev

He's still the Saint of the collapse of the Soviet Union - at least for clueless Western Mass Media: Mikhail Gorbachev: Fox News as well as practically all the print and tv media around the world, especially in the West, reported enthusiastically about his recent public announcement "I would step down in Putin's place".

As if the man had to say something. For all the copy & paste cheap-Jacks, in Russia Gorbachev's status is nearly that of  "persona non grata". He's one of the most hated figures in the country, not only because he's blamed for having demolished the Soviet Union, but also because of the accompanying and  following catastrophic developments in the former USSR Republics which lead to thousands of deaths, while he still was in charge, not to mention his disastrous alcohol prohibition campaign.

Gorbachev's popularity can be estimated on the basis of the results of the Russian presidential election in 1996, where he received 0,5% of the votes in the first round. Current protesters all around Russia would rather go home and vote for Putin at the next Presidential Elections to be held on 4 March 2012, instead of following Gorby's advice. But fact is, his voice has no weight in modern Russia whatsoever. The Fox News headline "Gorbachev vs. Putin" is thus pointless.