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Gorbachev calls for improving relations with former Soviet republics

Gorbachev has urged to strengthen the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security treaty Organization
Mikhail Gorbachev Sergei Bobylev/TASS
Mikhail Gorbachev
© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. The Soviet Union’s first president, Mikhail Gorbachev, has called for strengthening the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Collective Security treaty Organization (CSTO) and for mending relations with those former Soviet republics which are "at odds" with Russia.

"There is the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. These organizations should be strengthened, and every effort must be exerted to mend relations with the republics we are now at odds with. Such a program is vitally needed," he told TASS in an interview ahead of his jubilee.

Gorbachev recalled he had stated many times the Soviet Union could have been preserved "provided it was modernized and reformed and the republics were granted broad rights and real sovereignty."

On March 2, Gorbachev turns 90.