Leading article: Wisdom of an elder statesman

The world is changed by idealists, according to Mikhail Gorbachev. The former leader of the Soviet Union, who is 80 this week and who is interviewed in The Independent on Sunday today, offers an insight into how far our thinking is still dominated by assumptions of the Cold War. "I think even the United States doesn't need to be a superpower," he says. "China doesn't need to be a superpower. It.