Last Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is no more.
Gorbachev died at the age of 91 in Moscow.
Mikhail Gorbachev is known to have changed the course of history by triggering the collapse of Soviet Union.
Russian news agencies confirmed the demise of Mikhail Gorbachev, who was one of the tallest figures of the 20th century politics.
Gorbachev died at a central hospital in Moscow “after a serious and long illness”.
Mikhail Gorbachev was in power between 1985 and 1991.
He is being credited to have improved the US-Soviet relations and ending the cold war during his tenure.
His reforms as Soviet leader transformed the erstwhile USSR and ensured that Eastern Europe free itself from Soviet rule.
Mikhail Gorbachev had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a historic nuclear arms pact with US leader Ronald Reagan.
Although he shared ‘difficult’ relationship with current Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader has expressed his “deep sympathies” after Gorbachev’s demise.
Gorbachev was regarded fondly in the West, where he was affectionately referred to as Gorby and best known for defusing US-Soviet nuclear tensions in the 1980s as well as bringing Eastern Europe out from behind the Iron Curtain.
When pro-democracy protests swept across the Soviet Union of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, Gorbachev refrained from using force.
He recognized the policy of Glasnost or freedom of speech which was severely curtailed during the earlier regime.
Cultural freedoms were granted to the press and the artistic community during his time.
He launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus.
Notably, thousands of political prisoners and their dissidents were released during his rule.
He is accredited with the success of the nuclear disarmament agreement with the United States of America which won him the Nobel Peace Prize.
He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan, a tacit admission that the invasion in 1979 and the nine-year occupation had been a failure.
UN chief Antonio Guterres praised Gorbachev as “a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”
French President Emmanuel Macron praised him as a “man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history”.