Item COLD WAR 28/116 - Transcript of interview with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with Eduard Amvrosievich Shevardnadze, Soviet Foreign Minister, Jul 1985-Dec 1990, and Nov-Dec 1991, and President of Georgia, 1991-[1997], relating to the USSR under the leadership of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, 1964-1982; the policies on US/Soviet relations and arms reduction introduced by Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, 1985-1991; Gorbachev's reformist foreign policy and its relation to arms reduction and to Soviet internal politics, 1985-1991; the influence of the Soviet economy on Gorbachev's foreign policy decisions, 1985-1991; Shevardnadze's relationship with George Pratt Shultz, US Secretary of State, 1982-1989; Soviet disengagement from Afghanistan, 1987-1989; the supply of Soviet arms to the regime of Afghan President Gen Mohammad Najibullah, 1987-1992; the Soviet/US agreement on Afghanistan, Geneva, Switzerland, Nov 1990; the Soviet decision not to interfere militarily in Eastern Europe, 1989-1990; the political and economic reforms in Hungary, 1989-1990; the reopening of the borders between Hungary and Austria, 2 May 1989; the Soviet acceptance of talks between Polish President Gen Wojciech (Witold) Jaruzelski, and Lech Walesa, Chairman of the Solidarity Union, Jan 1989; the influence of the USSR in the removal of Erich Honecker as head of state in the German Democratic Republic, Oct 1989; the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, Nov 1989; Shevardnadze's opinion on the survival of socialism in Eastern Europe, 1991-1997; the election of US President George (Herbert Walker) Bush and the effect on Soviet/US relations, 1989; Shevardnadze's concerns on the future security of Europe, 1997; Gorbachev's opposition to the independence of the former Soviet republics, 1991; Shevardnadze's support for the independence of Georgia, Aug 1991; 'Bloody Sunday', the death of fourteen Lithuanians during the storming of public buildings by Soviet troops, Vilnius, Lithuania, 13 Jan 1991; the dissolution of the Communist Party of the USSR, 29 Aug 1991; approval by the USSR, the USA and the United Nations (UN) for military intervention against Iraq following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Aug 1990; the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, 1989-1990; Shevardnadze's opinion on the legacy of the Cold War, 1991-1997. 22pp