Russia: Lawmakers Want to Investigate Gorbachev

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/world/europe/russia-lawmakers-want-to-investigate-gorbachev.html

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Five members of the Russian Parliament have asked the prosecutor general to open a criminal case to investigate the breakup of the Soviet Union and the role played by the former leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. They contend that he failed to heed a referendum in 1991 that showed that a majority of Soviet citizens wanted to retain the union, and that he illegally formed a committee to study granting sovereignty to the Baltic countries. Mr. Gorbachev, 83, responded that he would cooperate but blamed the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus for the breakup. This stirring up of history captures an official mood today in Moscow, where many are questioning the legitimacy of former Soviet borders, and President Vladimir V. Putin’s government has twice in five years crossed them with the Russian Army, in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine this year.