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Roald Sagdeev: Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are leaders in ongoing democratic and economic changes in the region

06 February 2007 15:42 (UTC +04:00)

Sagdeev has been living in the US since 1990 and worked as director of the Soviet Space Research Institute.
The Professor spoke about the events happened while he served as deputy of the former USSRâ€™s Supreme Council and while he was in Mikhail Gorbachevâ€™s team. The academic showed the conflict between Gorbachev and Yeltsin as one of the causes of the collapse of the USSR. He said Mikhail Gorbachev told â€œThe Washington Postâ€? editors that he wished he had appointed Yeltsin ambassador to one of â€œbanana countriesâ€?.
Commenting on the current situation in the post-Soviet countries, Sagdeev underlined that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are leaders in ongoing democratic and economic changes in the region. According to Sagdeev demographic problems exist in Russia. He said quoting scientists that Russian population fells 1 million every year and the population will be 90 million in the middle of the 20th century.
Roald Sagdeev was one of those who predicted the USSRâ€™s collapse. /APA/