MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Gorbachev was not unlike Sisyphos. He tried to roll the Russian boulder up the hill of democracy only for it to roll down.

He was a complex figure but was more able to alter appearance than reality. At the end he lost control of both. He was certainly aware of the Soviet Union's bankruptcy but might have underestimated the structural inertia of Russia, which remains for a large part in a permanent lockdown, whatever history's aberrations might recast at the top.

He was not helped by the Schadenfreude in the West. The Perestroika could have benefited from a larger measure of tact. Russia stands for a lot of things but it is never small.