for the running order. Our Firth of Forth coverage has been scrapped. We're doing our best to get through to Russia on phone lines which are proving unreliable. We'd planned to talk too about the Challenger tank, which has been successfully attacked in Basra, but that too has fallen off the running order.
Just now done an int with a leading figure in Russia's cuirrent opposition. He puts Yeltsin in the same category as the "great" Russian leaders.
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I first heard tell of him when he was Mayor of Moscow, and his (relatively) liberal actions made headlines in what was still communist Russia. I hope that his gutsy response to the attempted coup won't be overshadowed by some of his more 'tired and emotional' antics of later years.
I suspect I am going to be talking about the running order in the Glass Box tonight. I hope you accomplished and skilled people do not make the rookie mistake of the newest news being the most important news - frankly, I would be more interested in the Filth of Forth story. But that's just me.
I've been 'without sound' all day so this is all very mysterious to me. I won't be able to hear the programme live either :-(, but I'll listen again late tonight.
Ha ha so I was right about the running order then! Just what does "In the same category as the 'great' Russian leaders" mean? He is one too? Or he isn't but could be slotted into the same category just for ease of filing. Rather than, say, "Russian leaders whose surnames begin with Y" for example.
I think we've all heard enough about the Firth of Forth & its smelly problems anyway today.
I have always thought that Russia traded a man of great intellect and promise for a thug when Yeltsin took over from Gorbachev. I've never strayed far from that view: while Yeltsin did fast-forward the democracy agenda, I don't think the nation was ready to handle it.
Gorbachev's more cautious approach, which was aimed at eventual democracy, may well have led to a more settled and equal nation. Instead we see a country that is ridden with crime and corruption, and whose democracy is so slender as to be almost farcical. Had Gorbachev been able to continue in post, I don't think we'd now have Mr. Putin - who is, in my view, very bad news for both his country and the wider world.
It's strange - Gorbachev (in post) was much closer in temperament and character to a democratic leader than those who have led, and then 'sustained', democracy in Russia. However, that breadth of outlook was probably the thing that his compatriots most mistrusted.
I'm sure I posted here earlier, but it was probably nonsense.
POOSH!