Fyodor Burlatsky (invading Afghanistan), 1990

Brief synopsis of discussion at a public meeting
Interviewer: Gwynne Dyer

MS: Dyer is at a public meeting and starts off with a set of questions with Fyodor Burlatsky, who said: Invading Afghanistan was a mistake. Brezhnev probably thought he could get away with it and that the West wouldn’t care much. But in some sense he was forced to do it by Jimmy Carter because Carter was trying to form an alliance between the US and China, and Brezhnev was very afraid of China, so he couldn’t ignore that.

See also
Fyodor Burlatsky (his political struggles), 1994
Fyodor Burlatsky (changes under Yeltsin), 1996
Fyodor Burlatsky (his human rights actions), 1997

The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, by Metta Spencer, published by Lexington Books
mspencer@web.net