Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev feels as though his life's work has been undone by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a close friend who spoke with Forbes Russia.

"What Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev did is all destroyed," Alexei Venediktov told the news outlet. "All Gorbachev's reforms — political, not economic — were all destroyed. Nilch, zero, ashes."

Gorbachev, he added, "is upset" about NATO's expansion as he established a good relationship with the West, which resulted in a decrease in the number of NATO troops in Europe.

NATO in late June announced plans to put 300,000 troops at high readiness as part of the "biggest overhaul of our collective defense and deterrence since the Cold War" in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Freedom is Gorbachev's business. Everyone has already forgotten who gave freedom to the Russian Orthodox Church. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev," said Venediktov. "Freedom of speech, the first law on the press — Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev. Private property — Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev. So what is he going to say now?"

Gorbachev, 91 and in poor health, has not commented publicly on the war. He oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which officially ended in 1991, and initiated the period of glasnost, or "openness," in which the Soviet Union loosened restrictions on the press and personal expression.

Venediktov, the longtime editor of independent Ekho Moscow radio until it was shut down in March 2022 under a crackdown by the Kremlin, is a prominent critic of Putin's.

Russia in recent months passed a law that included hefty prison sentences for anyone criticizing the war in Ukraine.

• CIA Director: Putin Thinks US 'Attention Deficit' Will Help Him Beat Ukraine
• Putin Gas Cutoff for Europe: Severe Recession to Follow