 Although he spoke out against some of the Putin government's actions, Gorbachev also had praise for the new regime; in 2002 he said that "I've been in the same skin.That's what allows me to say what [Putin's] done is in the interest of the majority".At the time, he believed Putin to be a committed democrat who nevertheless had to use "a certain dose of authoritarianism" to stabilize the economy and rebuild the state after the Yeltsin era.