Only five months after FPA Russia blog noted the intriguing similarities between Obama and Gorbachev, the AP’s Steven Hurt writes:

While historic analogies are never perfect, Obama’s stark efforts to change the U.S. image abroad are reminiscent of the stunning realignments sought by former Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev. During his short—by Soviet standards—tenure, he scrambled incessantly to shed the ideological entanglements that were leading the communist empire toward ruin.

But Obama is outpacing even Gorbachev.

Ironically, while one of Gorbachev’s foreign policy priorities was to cut ties with Cuba, Obama may be set to do the opposite.