clipped from: www.telegraph.co.uk   

Gorbachev: US could start new Cold War

Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the United States of mounting an imperialist conspiracy against Russia that could push the world into a new Cold War.

With Dmitry Medvedev due to be inaugurated today as Russian president, the Soviet Union's last leader said that the White House's claims of peaceful intentions towards its former superpower rival could no longer be trusted.

Delivering one of his most scathing attacks on the US, Mr Gorbachev told The Daily Telegraph that a US military build-up was under way to contain a resurgent Russia.

"The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently.

"Every US president has to have a war."

"I sometimes have a feeling that the United States is going to wage war against the entire world."

He railed against a "military-industrial complex" that he insisted was the "real government" of the US
suggested that Margaret Thatcher had supplied weapons to Chechen terrorists.