Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev speaks to reporters at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow Thursday, Feb. 29, 1996. Gorbachev said Thursday he was ready to run for the Russian presidency, but stopped just short of declaring himself formally in the race. "I can confirm that I am internally ready" to run, he said as he arrived his Foundation think tank in Moscow. "It's just a question of the time and the place that I will declare." (AP Photo)