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Gorbachev Urges Treaty's Preservation

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[December 05, 2007]  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Tuesday that it is critically important to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty he signed with President Ronald Reagan almost 20 years ago to the day.

Gorbachev said he disagrees with some in Russia, including President Vladimir Putin, who have called the treaty outdated and suggested that Russia should consider pulling out of it.

The treaty, which was signed at the White House on Dec. 8, 1987, banned the entire class of medium-range missiles.

Calls for Russia to withdraw from the treaty have been made amid mounting anger in the Kremlin over plans by the United States to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Last week, Putin signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits deployment of tanks, aircraft and other heavy weapons.

"All of these treaties constitute a system, a structure, that maintained a certain stability ... but this is something that should continue to work," he said. "It's not some kind of scrap and it's not some kind of old goods to be sold."

Gorbachev said preserving the INF treaty is a "common duty" shared by the U.S. and Russia.

"Improvements can be made, but the preservation of this treaty is extremely important from a practical and a political standpoint," he said. "If we start ruining treaties like this, this would end very badly."

Gorbachev, who is credited by some in the United States for hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been criticized by many in Russia for the economic problems that occurred after the breakup of the bloc.

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Gorbachev, who left office in 1991, said he believes history will praise his reforms, most notably glasnost, openness in the press and political debate, and perestroika, his economic reforms.

"Unfortunately, this is not the first time that it happens that history is being rewritten," he said. "This has happened in Russia and this has happened in world history. As for perestroika -- the whole epic story of perestroika -- I think that these efforts to malign it are really in vain."

Gorbachev was in the Boston area to speak at an international conference dubbed "Overcoming Nuclear Danger" at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

[Associated Press; By DENISE LAVOIE]

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