The Velvet Revolution of November 1989 ended communist rule, and the border regime went with it. The military zone along the Morava was lifted, the wire was taken down, and villages that had lived for forty years with their backs to the river could walk to it again. The line of the old frontier is now followed by a long-distance cycle route, which is about as complete a reversal as a landscape can manage. Gbely itself came through the change with its industry intact, because gas storage is a business a country needs whoever is governing it.Nežná revolúcia v novembri 1989 ukončila vládu komunistickej strany a s ňou skončil aj hraničný režim. Vojenský priestor pri Morave zrušili, drôty strhli a dediny, ktoré štyridsať rokov žili chrbtom k rieke, k nej mohli zase prísť. Po línii bývalej hranice dnes vedie diaľková cyklotrasa — úplnejší obrat si krajina ťažko vie dovoliť. Samotné Gbely prešli zmenou s priemyslom nedotknutým, lebo zásobníky plynu potrebuje krajina bez ohľadu na to, kto jej práve vládne.
