>> i think we were, i think we were surprised, in part, because we had been used to, well, with brezhnev, then i can't remember his name,. >> rose: andropov. >> andropov and then concern co. >> cher then co, so rbachev was kind of a breath of fresh air, somebody we could deal with, as a matter of fact, margaret thatcher after the first meeting and said here is a man i can deal with. so we sort of took .. him at face value in a sense, but in the bush administration, when he came into power there had been a lot ofalk, well the cold war is ove and gorbachev's etoric was very different, but we didn't think the cold war was over, because the cold war was a division of eastern europe, and nothing in fact had changed on th ground. >> rose: why was the collapse peaceful? zbigniew. >> i think it was peaceful because it was so comprehensive. your basic question asked, was it because of freedom or was it because of economic conditions? and of course was it because of gorbachev? of course, it was all three, but they weren't all the same. for example, the request quest for freedom really wasn't withi

it is starting to feel like the brezhnev era, soviet stagnation, especially if they cannot keep up economicpace. >> do you see any significant changes? >> no, i think that putin has approved the reset since the beginning. i do not think he will roll back any of the accomplishments, the nuclear treaty, counter- terrorism, others. these are all things that are basically good for russia, as well, so i see continuity there. >> what about his relationships with other world leaders? president bush once said he looked into his eyes and got a sense of his soul, but is it possible for someone to get to know the man? >> i cnooc the three letters that john mccain said -- i saw the three letters that john mccain -- i do not see that three letters that john mccain saw, kgb. it does not profit putin or russia to shake the confidence of investors, especially at a time when he looks over at western europe, and he sees the writing on the wall. there could be rioting in the streets, like they have had at trees. that is something he wants to avoid at all costs. this is something pertaining to his character. >

the collapse of the soviet union you could be nobody voted for going to push off nobody voted for brezhnev people who i knew we had referee in the over here i mean i'm going to continue to go ok great adrian go ahead jump in. well putin used to pride themselves for having established a system that stable and a constitution that's respect but now in a single move he's essentially undermined by returning after four years if you were serious about continuity and stability he would have allowed president to get us to run again and even if people say personnel there's not so much it's about the institutions now we have a president who's going to be leading the united russia party in the parliamentary elections this is not just growing the boundaries this is now in fact to be undermining the institutions guaranteed by the constitution not necessarily by the other people and that's john of the you know for him to hedge and then go to the other part of the sixty ordinary is the guy the majority of for corruption and members of his party i mean yes you must start building up a multi-party system an

it was actually the civil war between amongst the afghans which destroyed the city it looked like brezhnev i was there ninety three badly badly destroyed after the age of the soviets this after they'd been sort of gets out and then when the taliban began to emerge many afghans actually supported the taliban because the taliban promised peace security and they did do that but when they came into power in kabul in september one thousand nine hundred six i began to repress the other minority groups such as the tajiks that was ours that was backs and in that time the u.s. was involved that particular unocal american company with a consortium to. exactly understand i mean i started pakistan india right exactly and from from the oil fields to the power plant that was being built by general electric i think it's exactly exactly and they supported they they prefer to have one governments. in afghanistan and the irony as well which people seem to forget is that vice president cheney. made a grant of forty three million dollars to the taliban in the spring of two thousand and one so you know about t

brezhnev barack obama has presented his much anticipated job to congress the ambitious program aims to reverse the country's troubling unemployment statistics right now it also calls for almost half a trillion dollars in funding going to cave with a blunt warning to republicans to stop the political circus and pass the measure is more of what that will mean for america's embattled employed let's cut. to the publisher of the trends journal general good to see you on the program tonight there's nobody much political reaction to the speech is there international markets though did all edge down for it what's your take on his plan to get america back to work let's have some comment from you where you said it when obama said it was political circus and he's the ringmaster if anybody watched that you could wonder how any self respecting adult could have any respect for these politicians jumping up and down and clapping like trained seals that every two bit long all this speech was is obama's campaign speech on one and you have the republicans that want to cut back in title mention anything g