There was an attempt to isolate me - but they didn't succeed in forcing me to my knees

Mikhail Gorbachev

"That was the day that perestroika was so abruptly broken off."

Mr Gorbachev took advice from colleagues then locked himself away to write his resignation speech.

"I had to keep calm" Mr Gorbachev said "but inside I was full of emotion."

Anger at Yeltsin

Mr Gorbachev still maintains a union of states could have been preserved.

Final days

8 December: USSR declared defunct 21 December: CIS grows to 11 25 December: Gorbachev resigns 26 December: Russian flag flies over Kremlin

"There were objective reasons for changing the Soviet Union," he admitted, "but there are different ways to change things: you can either destroy everything, or reform it. We wanted to reform the USSR, and create a new Union: the Union of Sovereign States."

Mr Gorbachev blames Russia for destroying the Union. His most bitter criticism was reserved for the man who helped force him from power, Boris Yeltsin.

"He's a strange man," Mr Gorbachev told me, "full of tricks, and with a thirst for power. He claimed to be against privileges but Russian tsars didn't have the kind of privileges that he had. He's a liar!"

Putin's domestic policies are aimed not at the business clans, but at the majority of Russians who live in poverty

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mr Gorbachev accused the former Russian leader of trying to keep tabs on him after 1991.

"Yeltsin controlled everything," he complained. "I was completely under his control. My telephones were bugged. Whenever I travelled abroad ambassadors were instructed not to meet me. I was even banned from appearing on live TV.

"There was an attempt to isolate me - but they didn't succeed in forcing me to my knees."

Rehabilitation

Today Mikhail Gorbachev enjoys greater respect from the Kremlin.

He claims that President Vladimir Putin sometimes asks his advice on issues ranging from health reform to education.

"They've even give me back a special government telephone" Mr Gorbachev told me "so I can call the Kremlin."

The former Soviet leader was full of praise for Mr Putin.

"Putin's domestic policies," Mr Gorbachev argued, "are aimed not at the business clans, but at the majority of Russians who live in poverty."

He said the Russian president had helped bring stability and order to the country.