In the condolence debate in the Australian Parliament for the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton said:
"Twenty-four years after he resigned as the leader of the Soviet Union and after the dissolution of the USSR, Gorbachev wrote:
"An optimist is someone dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs who is not resigned to it and constantly looks… for opportunities to make the world a better place… I declare myself an optimist."
Today the world remains optimistic that Russia's future will have more Gorbachevs and fewer Putins. "