Skip to main content

Site navigation

  • University of Technology Sydney home
  • Home

    Home
  • For students

  • For industry

  • Research

Explore

  • Courses
  • Events
  • News
  • Stories
  • People

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Study at UTS

    • arrow_right_alt Find a course
    • arrow_right_alt Course areas
    • arrow_right_alt Undergraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Postgraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Research Masters and PhD
    • arrow_right_alt Online study and short courses
  • Student information

    • arrow_right_alt Current students
    • arrow_right_alt New UTS students
    • arrow_right_alt Graduates (Alumni)
    • arrow_right_alt High school students
    • arrow_right_alt Indigenous students
    • arrow_right_alt International students
  • Admissions

    • arrow_right_alt How to apply
    • arrow_right_alt Entry pathways
    • arrow_right_alt Eligibility
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for students

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Apply for a coursearrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Scholarshipsarrow_right_alt
  • Featured industries

    • arrow_right_alt Agriculture and food
    • arrow_right_alt Defence and space
    • arrow_right_alt Energy and transport
    • arrow_right_alt Government and policy
    • arrow_right_alt Health and medical
    • arrow_right_alt Corporate training
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Tech Central
    • arrow_right_alt Case studies
    • arrow_right_alt Research
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for industry

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Partner with usarrow_right_alt
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Explore our research
    • arrow_right_alt Research centres and institutes
    • arrow_right_alt Graduate research
    • arrow_right_alt Research partnerships
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for research

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Research centres and institutesarrow_right_alt
  • University of Technology Sydney home
University of Technology Sydney home University of Technology Sydney home
  1. home
  2. arrow_forward_ios ... Newsroom
  3. arrow_forward_ios ... 2022
  4. arrow_forward_ios 09
  5. arrow_forward_ios From Gorby-mania to Putin’s putsch

From Gorby-mania to Putin’s putsch

2 September 2022

Under Putin, there’s none of the economic reform envisaged by Gorbachev’s visit to Minnesota. Instead it’s expansion by stealth and military aggression, writes Industry Professor Tim Harcourt.

Gorbachev in Minnesota

Image: M. Walter

When I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in 1990 USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. Gorbachev and his very popular wife Raisa got a huge turnout – even more than the incumbent President Bush senior when he visited the same year. The visit was very popular among Minnesotans, with ‘Gorby-mania’ the talk of the local media. Huge crowds followed the Gorbachevs wherever they went, lining up from early morning to catch a glimpse of the Soviet Union President and his charismatic wife.

So why the Gorbachevs did chose Minnesota?  It was partly because the Soviet leader wanted to look at agriculture in the Mid-West of the USA. This was reminiscent of Khrushchev’s visit to Iowa in 1959 just over three decades earlier. He was also keen to look at technology (partly to import some US technology to Chernobyl after the failure of its nuclear facility).

Minnesota being an advanced agriculture state (we would call it an ‘agtech hub’ today) and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul being the headquarters of leading US technology companies at the time, Control Data, Honeywell and 3M sealed the deal for the visit. Mikhail Gorbachev met the Governor of Minnesota, signed an investment deal, visited some agricultural shows, and had a tour of Control Data. And Raisa visited a local Minnesota farming family to discuss American life over milk and cookies. It was hard to believe this was the first couple of America’s cold war foe the Soviet Union, with the Gorbachevs regularly leaving their motorcade to press the flesh with the public like any democratic politician would. Was the cold war really over? It seemed on that unseasonably chilly June day in Minnesota there was some hope.

But by 1991, it was all over. The old communist hardliners arrested Gorbachev and by the time the attempted coup was overturned, Gorbachev was humiliated by Boris Yeltsin as the new President of Russia as the old USSR collapsed. I regularly visited Russia in the days of Yeltsin’s cowboy capitalism. The Oligarchs reigned supreme and in fact I met a few of them at the opening of an Australian Aboriginal Art exhibition in Moscow, where they tried to buy paintings by the dot with US cash.  Australian made make up accessories were handed out by Russian models (emblazoned in dots to look like the paintings) to the Oligarch’s girlfriends. It was the art of one of the world’s oldest civilisations coupled with the conspicuous consumption of Moscow’s new wealthy elite, a sort of Pushkin meets Pitjantjatjara.

The instability of the Yeltsin era (US President Bill Clinton had actually insisted Russia be admitted to APEC to shore up Yeltsin) was followed by the installation of Vladimir Putin as President, Prime Minister and President again after manipulation of the constitution and all resistance to the democratic reform promised by Gorbachev in the era of ‘glasnost’ (openness) and ‘perestroika’ (economic restructuring).

Putin let Yeltsin’s Oligarchs expand their empires until they called for democratic reform when he stripped their assets and gaoled them. Gorbachev, after originally supporting Putin as a strong stable leader after Yeltsin, fell out with him. Gorbachev regretting not shoring up property rights and the legal system before he sold state assets to the oligarchs and not enshrining democratic reforms in the constitution more effectively. As a result we got neither glasnost nor perestroika, with Putin effectively a modern Tsar with KGB tendencies and a Russian economy reliant on oil and gas.

Today, Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine is partly about access to the port facilities that send Ukrainian wheat, maize and barley to the world. Alas, Australia is in some ways benefiting from the conflict by selling our wheat to the world in place of Ukraine’s.  Under Putin, there’s none of the economic reform envisaged by Gorbachev’s visit to Minnesota. Instead it’s expansion by stealth and military aggression. That’s the tragedy of Gorbachev’s failure to win as much support in Moscow as he did in Minnesota.

Tim Harcourt is Industry Professor and Chief Economist at IPPG at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and host of The Airport Economist www.theairporteconomist.com

Share
Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn
Back to Business and law

Related News

  • we're hiring sign
    The jobs summit must tackle Indigenous-led employment policy
  • Photo of Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt
    Self-determination at heart of effective policy

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

University of Technology Sydney

City Campus

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Get in touch with UTS

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

A member of

  • Australian Technology Network
Use arrow keys to navigate within each column of links. Press Tab to move between columns.

Study

  • Find a course
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • How to apply
  • Scholarships and prizes
  • International students
  • Campus maps
  • Accommodation

Engage

  • Find an expert
  • Industry
  • News
  • Events
  • Experience UTS
  • Research
  • Stories
  • Alumni

About

  • Who we are
  • Faculties
  • Learning and teaching
  • Sustainability
  • Initiatives
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Campus and locations
  • Awards and rankings
  • UTS governance

Staff and students

  • Current students
  • Help and support
  • Library
  • Policies
  • StaffConnect
  • Working at UTS
  • UTS Handbook
  • Contact us
  • Copyright © 2025
  • ABN: 77 257 686 961
  • CRICOS provider number: 00099F
  • TEQSA provider number: PRV12060
  • TEQSA category: Australian University
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility