DHAKA: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Thursday he would seek to defend Vladimir Putin’s policies when he travels to Germany for ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall this week.

Gorbachev, who is praised for his decision not to use force to quell uprisings in Eastern Europe, allowing the Berlin Wall to fall, said that Washington did Moscow wrong and Putin was the best man for the job of protecting the country’s interests.

This weekend Gorbachev, 83, is scheduled to take part in the festivities commemorating the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, a potent symbol of the Cold War, amid a dramatic confrontation between Moscow and the West.

Gorbachev, whose ‘perestroika’ and ‘glasnost’ reforms helped pave the way to the Wall’s fall, is set to meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel and president Joachim Gauck and will greet crowds at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.

BDST: 2044 HRS, NOV 06, 2014