Interviewed 1990 in Moscow
Interviewer: Gwynne Dyer

MS: The most interesting comment is one that Gwynne himself makes to her after spending the morning watching Gorbachev working in a group with inter-regional conference. He says that G, for all his wonderful qualities, is a bully. He orders, he commands, he shouts, he tells people to shut up. Is that necessary?

Starovoytova: Of course not and his response is inadequate to the situation. They have just written an open letter asking him to cooperate with the interregional process because it is to his advantage. He is trying to secure his own future after the party collapses by becoming President and he is trying to change horses in the middle of the stream. It is politically safer for the government to use force in the Central Asian region than anywhere near Moscow.

MS: There is no translation but she was on the platform with Yeltsin, so she must be hot stuff, whoever she is. The other side in blank.

My later note: She was a major figure in Democratic Russia and was later assassinated.