Duma members want Gorbachev on trial

  • 2014-04-11
  • From wire reports, RIGA

A group of Russian Duma members who represent various political parties have drawn up a petition that they will submit to the country's prosecutor general, demanding that a probe be launched into the events leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union, reports UNIAN.

Said Duma members hope that the probe will result in criminal cases, including one against Mikhail Gorbachev, reports newspaper Izvestiya.

The Russian MPs claim that Soviet Union citizens did not want the Soviet Union to fall apart, but Soviet leaders engaged in unlawful actions that resulted in the collapse.

The MPs accuse Gorbachev of establishing the Soviet Union's State Council that made the decision to recognize the restored independence of the Baltic countries - they believe that this institution did not have such a right.

The initiators of the petition are Yevgeniy Fiodorov and Oleg Denisenko from the United Russia Party, Communist Ivan Nikitchuk and Liberal Democrat Mikhail Degtyarov.