{"id":28934,"date":"2022-09-01T16:17:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T16:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence"},"modified":"2022-09-01T16:26:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T16:26:03","slug":"gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence","title":{"rendered":"Gorbachev acknowledged for key role in Namibia’s independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>INSTITUTE for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director and political analyst Graham Hopwood says Mikhail Gorbachev, who yesterday died at the age of 91, was a pivotal figure during the changing global politics of the 1980s, and that his geopolitical changes facilitated Namibian independence.<\/b><\/p>\n

Gorbachev was the last Soviet leader who brought the Cold War to a peaceful end.<\/p>\n

He took power in 1985, opened the Soviet Union up to the world, and introduced a set of reforms at home. But he was unable to prevent the slow collapse of the Soviet Union, from which modern Russia emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to open up the Soviet Union through glasnost and perestroika rather than bring an end to it, and it happened,\u201d Hopwood says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany eastern European countries that are now independent, working democracies, will forever be grateful for Gorbachev’s role in removing Soviet domination and allowing democracy to develop.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the changes have also led to instability in countries like Ukraine, and to the ‘strongman’ politics we now see in Russia and Belarus,\u201d Hopwood says.<\/p>\n

He says in Namibia, Gorbachev’s geopolitical changes facilitated Namibian independence, although there were other crucial factors, including South Africa getting bogged down militarily in southern Angola, Swapo’s diplomatic efforts, and the heightened internal resistance in Namibia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing and the fact that things moved quite quickly in the period from 1988 to 1990 had a lot to do with the changes in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Acting head of multilateral relations and cooperation in the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation Jerobeam Shaanika says the role Gorbachev played in ending the Cold War cannot be underestimated, and there is evidence that steps he has taken points to the role he played.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the last leader of the Soviet Union, from 1985 to 1991. In fact, this was a short period to carve out a foreign policy image in, but he played a significant role in ending the Cold war,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Shaanika says when Namibia attained its independence, Gorbachev contributed to the end of the Cold War, which also minimised tensions everywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot put Gorbachev in the same category as Fidel Castro. That’s a fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cGorbachev is also not Leonides, but he was part and parcel of the system that supported the liberation struggle in Namibia and in southern Africa, as well as in Africa and worldwide,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Shaanika says Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1979, which was very significant in the foreign policy of Russia and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1987, to be precise, on 8 December, Gorbachev and Reagan, who was the president of the United States, signed the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe treaty required that the Soviet Union must eliminate its nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5 500 kilometres,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Nahas Angula says the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a disappointment to many people.<\/p>\n

He says the war between Russia and Ukraine is due to Gorbachev.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing war between the two sisterly countries is the result of Gorbachev’s policies. That is what I can say,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. INSTITUTE for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director and political analyst Graham Hopwood says Mikhail Gorbachev, who yesterday died at the age of 91, was a pivotal figure during the changing global politics of the 1980s, and that his geopolitical changes facilitated Namibian independence. Gorbachev was the last Soviet leader who brought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-28934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nGorbachev acknowledged for key role in Namibia's independence - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"INSTITUTE for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director and political analyst Graham Hopwood says Mikhail Gorb ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gorbachev acknowledged for key role in Namibia's independence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"INSTITUTE for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director and political analyst Graham Hopwood says Mikhail Gorb ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-01T16:17:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-01T16:26:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Gorbachev acknowledged for key role in Namibia’s independence\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-01T16:17:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-01T16:26:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\"},\"wordCount\":552,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/gorbachev-acknowledged-for-key-role-in-namibias-independence\",\"name\":\"Gorbachev acknowledged for key role in Namibia's independence - 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