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History’s bookends: Putin reversed many Gorbachev reforms

FILE - People walk around destroyed Russian military vehicles installed in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Putin's perceptions about the ensuing threats to his country and his fear of popular revolutions color his foreign policy and his deep mistrust of the West to this day. They underpin his decision to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24. As one justification for the war, he cites what he believes was a broken U.S. promise to Gorbachev – a supposed 1990 pledge that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File) FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, marking the 81st anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File) FILE - U.S. President Ronald Reagan acknowledges the crowd after his speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, where he said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" June 12, 1987. U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1983 famously branded Russia an "evil empire." Five years later, he recanted the description at a summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. (AP Photo/Ira Schwartz, File) FILE - Police officers detain a person during an unsanctioned rally in Moscow on Saturday, July 27, 2019. Domestically, Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved dramatically away from Gorbachev's openness and freedom. He's been rebuilding the police state Gorbachev dismantled -- jailing his critics, branding them as traitors and extremists, including for merely calling the military operation in Ukraine a war. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FILE - Inga Kudracheva, bottom, screams as her boyfriend Boris Kantorovich lies atop her while police try to detain him during an unsanctioned protest in Moscow on Saturday, July 27, 2019. Domestically, Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved dramatically away from Gorbachev's openness and freedom. He's been rebuilding the police state Gorbachev dismantled -- jailing his critics, branding them as traitors and extremists, including for merely calling the military operation in Ukraine a war. (AP Photo/Denis Sinyakov, File) FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives at the German-Russian Petersburg Dialogue conference in Dresden on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday for talks about Iran's nuclear program and growing Russian-German economic ties, revisiting the city where he once served as a KGB spy. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File) FILE - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev argues a point with lawmakers session of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow on Friday, July 14, 1989. When Gorbachev came to power as Soviet leader in 1985, he was younger and more vibrant than his predecessors. It was an exciting, hopeful time for Soviet citizens and the world. Gorbachev brought the promise of a better future. (AP Photo, File) FILE - People and relatives greet Soviet Army soldiers driving on their armored personnel carriers after crossing a bridge on the border between Afghanistan and then Soviet Uzbekistan near the Uzbek town of Termez, Uzbekistan in Feb. 15, 1989. After nearly a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, he ordered the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, entered into multiple arms control and disarmament agreements with the United States and other countries, and helped end the Cold War. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FILE - This 1986 file photo shows an aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine showing damage from an explosion and fire in reactor four on April 26, 1986 that sent large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. A massive shelter has finally been installed over the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in the world. The half-cylinder-shaped shelter began being moved toward the reactor on a system of hydraulic jacks two weeks ago and reached its destination Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016 a significant step toward liquidating the remains of the world's worst nuclear accident, 30 years ago in what is now Ukraine. (AP Photo/Volodymyr Repik, File) FILE - Writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, left, speaks with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as Swedish Ambassador Sven Hirdman, center, looks on at the Swedish Embassy where Solzhenitsyn and other Nobel laureates are feted in Moscow, Thursday, December 10, 1998. Gorbachev loosened up on the dreaded police state, which sowed fear through society, freed political prisoners such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, and ended the Communist Party's monopoly on political power. Freer foreign travel, emigration and religious observance were also part of the mix. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FILE - Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, flanked by his wife Natalia, right, and his son Yermolai, left, addresses reporters and people on his arrival at Vladivostok Airport on May 27, 1994. Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his native country after 20 years of exile. Gorbachev loosened up on the dreaded police state, which sowed fear through society, freed political prisoners such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, and ended the Communist Party's monopoly on political power. Freer foreign travel, emigration and religious observance were also part of the mix. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, File) FILE - Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov arrives at Moscow train station Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1986. This is Sakharov's first time in Moscow in nearly seven years. Gorbachev loosened up on the dreaded police state, which sowed fear through society, freed political prisoners such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, and ended the Communist Party's monopoly on political power. Freer foreign travel, emigration and religious observance were also part of the mix. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, Fie) FILE - Muscovites queue to buy meat at a butcher shop in downtown Moscow, Dec. 27, 1990. Each Muscovite holds a special coupon which gives them the opportunity to by half a kilo of meat. (1.1 lbs.) at a time. It was an exciting, hopeful time for Soviet citizens and the world. Gorbachev brought the promise of a better future. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FILE - A crowd estimated at 50,000 people brave a driving rain to gather in front of the Kremlin in Moscow on Sunday, July 16, 1990. When Gorbachev came to power as Soviet leader in 1985, he was younger and more vibrant than his predecessors. He dramatically broke with the Communist past by moving away from a police state, embracing freedom of the press, ending his country's war in Afghanistan and letting go of Eastern European countries that had been locked in Moscow's grip for decades. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FILE - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev chats to Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, March 26, 1985 in Moscow at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet or parliament, of the Russian Republic. When Gorbachev came to power as Soviet leader in 1985, he was younger and more vibrant than his predecessors. He dramatically broke with the Communist past by moving away from a police state, embracing freedom of the press, ending his country's war in Afghanistan and letting go of Eastern European countries that had been locked in Moscow's grip for decades. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko) FILE - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, his wife Raisa at his side holding an umbrella speak to the media at an polling station in Moscow on March, 26, 1989. When Gorbachev came to power as Soviet leader in 1985, he was younger and more vibrant than his predecessors. He dramatically broke with the Communist past by moving away from a police state, embracing freedom of the press, ending his country's war in Afghanistan and letting go of Eastern European countries that had been locked in Moscow's grip for decades.. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File) FILE - A portrait of the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and flowers are placed at his foundation's headquarters, a day after his passing, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and for many the man who restored democracy to then-communist-ruled European nations, was mourned Wednesday as the loss of a rare leader who changed the world and for a time gave hope for peace among the superpowers. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)