Malcolm Rifkind is a former British foreign secretary . Because 25 years on , it is no longer satisfactory only to discuss what may have disappeared between 1989 and 1991 -- we must also consider what eventually replaced it . Fall of Berlin Wall was overwhelmingly positive , Rifkind writes . But not all the side-effects were , he says . The Soviet Union collapsed because it had no real economy to fall back on after its collapse in 1989
Malcolm Rifkind is a former British foreign secretary . Fall of Berlin Wall was overwhelmingly positive , Rifkind writes . But not all the side-effects were , he says . The Soviet Union collapsed because it had no real economy to fall back on after its collapse in 1989