Trump’s Perestroika

Perestroika is Coming to Town. I Mean Washington Town.

Of course, the legacy of Gorbachev is complex. For many he was a hero, for many — a traitor. He did what was necessary! — No! He destroyed the best country on earth.

I didn’t live in Russia during perestroika, but I know it was incredibly rough and it was very costly in terms of life and misery. We can agree that the methods chosen were sloppy and cruel, and so were the so called foremen of Perestroika.

All those Gaidars and Chubaises who dismantled Soviet Economy and created endless amount of gangster oligarchs in the process.

And then Yeltsin, a drunken and power hungry SOB, who introduced even more cruel changes, ushering unbridled nationalism instead of phony union of people sustained by empty slogans.

But. And that’s a huge but. It was necessary to do something. The country couldn’t go on further on public lies, inefficient economy, corruption, exploitation, hypocrisy, seething hatred, and drunkenness. So Gorbachev embarked on changes, which he hoped to achieve through restructuring and openness.

I think this Soviet and Post-Soviet experience can help us understand what is going on with Trump. Is current economy good? Not really. Inflation, stagnation, failures in public sector like transport or medicine, social stratification. The Soviets embark on irrational war in Afghanistan, NATO decided to support Ukrainian war.

Billions of dollars later, nothing to show for it. The country faced prosperous NATO, today’s NATO is facing incredibly prosperous China and the rest of self-assertive BRICS countries.

The Soviets could no longer afford to pay for all their vassal and client states. Same can be said about United States and the endless waste of money by USaid.

I imagine that leaders of Cuba, Yemen, or Congo looking at Gorbachev with the same expression as EU leaders look now at J.D. Vance.

USSR were drowning in lies, and so is NATOstan under endless hypocrisy of phony elites with degrees from Yale and Cambridge. So yes, Trump and his team decided to embark on Perestroika and Glasnost (openness). Cut endless state expenditures, stop idiotic censorship, ban all those éminence grise who in the manner of Suslov, control ideology and brainwash us through the pages of NYT and BBC. Enough already.

But will Musk be better than Chubais? Will Vance deliver? Will the country emerge confident and efficient or restructured and battered? Will NATO survive or will it follow the trajectory of Warsaw Pact?

Well, I guess, history does not ask us. Changes are needed, and history sends the agents to execute them. That’s happened during French and Russian revolutions, that might be happening now. Ancient regimes were inadequate. They didn’t have anyone to blame except themselves.