More, from the link already cited above:
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It was the Russians (a Soviet army newspaper, I think) who dubbed Margaret Thatcher the "Iron Lady" in the 1970s. This is what they are saying about Lady Thatcher in Russia today. It's from my colleague Miriam Elder.
There are few things Russian officialdom respects more than a strong leader and, to them, Margaret Thatcher was it. It was Krasnaya Zvezda, the Red Army’s newspaper, that dubbed her the “Iron Lady†in a 1977 article. The title stuck around. The Soviet Union didn’t.
She forged a warm relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet premier. The 82-year-old Gorbachev said on Monday: “Margaret Thatcher was a big political figure and a bright person. She will remain in our memory and in history.â€
The news of Margaret Thatcher's death is a sad thing. I knew she was seriously ill, the last time we saw each other was several years ago,†he said.
Speaking to the Interfax news agency he said the two leaders’ relations “were difficult at times, not always smooth, but, serious and responsible from both sides.â€
"Personal relations formed gradually and became more and more friendly,†he said. “Eventually, we managed to reach mutual understanding and it was a contribution to changing the atmosphere between our country and the West and to stopping the cold war."
Thatcher was unswerving in her criticism of the “evil empireâ€.
“Until her coming to power, the western establishment thought that the USSR and communism were permanent, so you don’t have to struggle against them, but come to terms with them,†the influential political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told the Izvestiya newspaper on Monday. “It was Thatcher and then Reagen who brought the totally new idea that communism can be beaten and destroyed. And they did it.â€
It was an unswerving position that elevated her to soaring heights among Russia’s, ironically liberal, classes. Boris Nemtsov, a former Kremlin official turned opposition leader, compared Thatcher to the last Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev: “Neither one nor the other was loved in their motherland, but were respected abroad.â€
Anatoly Adamshin, a deputy foreign minister in the last Soviet cabinet, said: “She is dear to me because from the very beginning, she felt that Gorbachev is the kind of leader that wants to do a lot for his country and supported him from the very beginning.â€
Even Russia’s hardliners found something to respect.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Communist deputy Leonid Kalashnikov said: “She is the greatest woman, the greatest politician – as an opponent, I always respected her.â€
“And how she, with the Americans ‘strangled’ the Soviet Union is also worth quite a lot – because she did it correctly, logically and in their own interests,†he said. “Our men-politicians need to learn from her, how to stand up for the national interests of your country,†he said.
