I disapproved of the fact that the government here refused…

We must adopt reforms which will expand the range of opportunities for all Americans. We can fulfill the American dream only when each person…

— Richard M. Nixon

The role of Ronald Reagan had been deliberately diminished; the role of the Europeans, who, with the exception of Helmet Kohl, were often keen…

— Margaret Thatcher

Scholars have been arguing for a long time whether the Soviet Union could have been turned into some kind of social democracy. I doubt…

— David Hoffman

When [Vladimir] Putin, a former lieutenant-colonel in the KGB, became Russia's president on December 31, 1999 - eight years after the failed coup attempt…

— Garry Kasparov

“Although at the time I didn’t realize this, the Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev had begun promoting ‘glasnost’ or political openness throughout the Soviet…

— Andrea White

Mr. Gorbachev has apparently stumbled onto one of the best-kept secrets in recent Soviet history: Communism doesn't work.

— Frank Zappa

Mr. Gorbachev initiated Glasnost, Perestroika, so he was already, you know, way disenchanted with the rigid Communist ideology, and he was looking to become…

— Deepak Chopra

Here I was in Estonia, doing a concert for 5,000 people, and not many people know the song My Way - Gorbachev in the…

— Robert Davi

The essential meaning of perestroika for Gorbachev and his supporters was creating and acting on alternatives to failed and dangerous policies at home and…

— Stephen Cohen

Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in…

— Mikhail Gorbachev

Stalin, of course, never went on trial, but his legacy did. In 1956, three years after his death, he was denounced by Nikita Khrushchev.…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I left Gorbachev's office thinking that everything about him was outsized: his achievements, his mistakes, and, now, his vanity and bitterness.

— David Remnick

I couldn't help but say to [Mr. Gorbachev], just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held…

— Ronald Reagan

He [Mikhail Gorbachev] has, as many great leaders have, impressive eyes…There's a kind of laser-beam stare, a forced quality, you get from Gorbachev that…

— Dan Rather

If we talk about changes of power in Russia, that has occurred several times in the past century. After Stalin came Khrushchev, who implemented…

— Mikhail Khodorkovsky