Rosemarie Reed’s 1994 documentary Conversations with Gorbachev sheds light on world events from the first-hand perspective of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, as interviewed by Professor of Russian and Soviet Studies at NYU and Princeton, Stephen F. Cohen.

It includes Gorbachev’s insights on reintegration in the post-Soviet space and his support for the basic concept for a Eurasian Customs Union of former Soviet republics. When Cohen asks him “What do you think will be the reaction in the United States if any kind of new ‘larger Russia’ union, confederation, association begins to emerge?” Gorbachev responds, “But why? But why? But why is it that Washington ought to decide what relations there should be between the former republics of the Soviet Union?”

Filmed over one week in his office in Moscow, the former leader of the Soviet Union is open, spry and emphatic on his time in office and the future of Russian and United States relations.

 

Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting