Does anybody remember Mikhail Gorbachev? He was the last leader of the USSR and fighting off a failed coup as the vast structure collapsed around him. He was a featured speaker at an event to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some of his remarks are creating ripples across the global media.
Ex-USSR leader Gorbachev: World on brink of new Cold War
Mr Gorbachev, 83, was attending an event at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
The landmark was inaccessible during the Partition of Germany, and is seen as a symbol of the country's reunification.
"Bloodshed in Europe and the Middle East against the backdrop of a breakdown in dialogue between the major powers is of enormous concern," he said.
"The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it's already begun."
He said that the West, in particular the US, had succumbed to "triumphalism" after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
For this reason the global powers had been unable to cope with conflicts in Yugoslavia, the Middle East and now Ukraine, he added.
The former Soviet leader urged the West to lift sanctions on Russian officials - imposed over the annexation of Crimea and Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukraine conflict - and restore trust through dialogue with the Kremlin.
My impression is that Gorbachev has kept a pretty low profile in Russian politics over the years. He certainly has never been identified with Putin's inner circle. I'm not sure what relations between them might be like. It would seem plausible to take his opinion as being at least somewhat independent of the government line.
The situation in Ukraine is certainly no where near a resolution. The US and other western powers has pretty much shifted their attention to the problems in Iraq and Syria. Russia doesn't have the same global reach as the USSR when it was under full sail. However, they have enough leverage to regularly disrupt any sort of international consensus on global hot spots.