[LINK] "Soviet Union Wanted to Topple Honecker in 1987, Morgenpost Says"

[rfmcdonald]

This is an interesting story indeed. If it's true, of course.

The Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to topple East German leader Erich Honecker to clear the way for revamping the communist state in 1987, two years before the Berlin Wall fell, Berliner Morgenpost reported.

The government in Moscow sought out the East German spymaster Markus Wolf, who had ties with the KGB and spoke fluent Russian, to plot the overthrow of Honecker, Morgenpost said, citing research and interviews. Wolf resigned his post as the chief of Stasi foreign intelligence in February 1987, saying wanted to retire and write books.

The following month, Wolf met in Dresden with then-KGB deputy chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and Hans Modrow, a high-ranking East German communist party member who was designated as the most likely successor to Honecker. At the time, Wolf was unable to get the country’s security forces to back him, Morgenpost said.

Gorbachev, who had implemented the “glasnost” and “perestroika” agenda to change the Soviet Union and open its political system, had grown impatient with Honecker’s hard-line policies, including orders to shoot those trying to escape East Germany to the West. Honecker was ousted two years later amid massive pro-democracy protests which forced the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. East Germany ceased to exist after the 1990 German reunification.

Thoughts? Does this sound credible or incredible to my readers?