Most Russians See Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan As Defining Moment Of 1989 - Poll

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2019) The majority of Russians said they saw the end of the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as the most crucial event of 1989, a poll published Monday showed.

The survey, conducted by the Moscow-based Levada Center among 1,605 Russians between July 18-24, asked participants to rank a list of events that occurred in 1989 by which they considered to be the most significant. The results showed that 56 percent of those sampled viewed the end of the Afghan campaign in February 1989 as "the most important event" of that year.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was considered to be the most crucial event by 24 percent of the respondents, while 19 percent singled out the anti-government protests of Soviet coal miners.

Only 11 percent of those polled considered the first meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush, the respective leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States at the time, to be a significant turning point. Eight percent said it was the death of Andrei Sakharov, a Russian dissident and nuclear scientist.