Russian MPs want Gorbachev probed for treason

A group of Russian lawmakers have formally requested prosecutors to probe former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for treason over the breakup of the Soviet Union, one lawmaker said Thursday. Ivan Nikitchuk, a lawmaker with the Communist party, said that recent events and the crisis in Ukraine in particular have led several MPs, including some from the ruling party, to ask Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to probe Gorbachev, 83. "We asked to prosecute him and those who helped him destroy the Soviet Union for treason of national interests," Nikitchuk said, adding that Soviet citizens in 1991 were against the country's breakup. Seeking to create a more open and prosperous Soviet Union through glasnost and perestroika, Gorbachev ended up inadvertently unleashing forces that swept the country he had sought to preserve from the map and himself from power, according to AFP.