Moscow, August 17 (Interfax) - Shortly before the putsch and the establishment of the State of Emergency Committee GKChP in 1991, the then-president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin claimed he was determined to save the Soviet Union, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said.
"It used to be this way: We would sit together and come to an agreement, reaching complete understanding. I remember when we gathered at Novo-Ogaryovo I asked him to speak his mind and he said the Union will be saved. But then he walked out, washed his hands, had a meal and started saying totally different things behind my back," Gorbachev said at a news conference at Interfax on Wednesday.
"Some say that politicians are free to do whatever they like. I disagree. Politics must go with moral principles," he said.
Asked whether he had ever thought of forming a tandem with Yeltsin, Gorbachev said, "Such an idea never occurred to me."
Gorbachev said he had been trying to establish relations with Yeltsin, but it was all in vain.
