Tributes pour in for former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet Union's final president dies at 91

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  Mikhail Gorbachev waves from the Red Square in Moscow during a Revolution Day celebration in November 1989. AP

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  Gorbachev poses for a picture at the age of 19, wearing the Red Banner of Labour medal he received for driving a combine harvester on the plains of southern Russia. AP

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  Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its end in 1991. AFP

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  Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan meet for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1985. Reuters

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  Gorbachev and East German communist leader Erich Honecker sing the 'The International', widely regarded as a communist anthem, in East Berlin in April 1986. AFP

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  Gorbachev and Francois Mitterrand wave during an official trip by the French president to the USSR, in July 1986. AFP

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  Gorbachev gives a speech in Moscow, during the 18th Congress of the USSR Trade Unions, in February 1987. AFP

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  British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Gorbachev before the start of talks at the Kremlin in March 1987. AFP

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  Gorbachev waves from the Red Square in November 1987, during celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. AP

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  Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty at the White House in Washington in December 1987. Reuters

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  Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle at the end of the Soviet leader's visit to Britain in April 1989. AFP

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  Gorbachev and his wife Raisa take in the view during a tour of China's Great Wall, in Beijing, in May 1989. AP

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  Gorbachev and his wife are greeted by cheering crowds in Bonn, Germany, in June 1989. EPA

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  Pope John Paul II greets Gorbachev at the Vatican in December 1989. AFP

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  Gorbachev speaks at the Lenin monument in Vilnius, Lithuania, in January 1990. AP

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  Gorbachev attends a Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe summit in Paris in November 1990. AFP

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  US President George Bush and Gorbachev confer in Moscow in July 1991, after the end of a US-Soviet summit dedicated to disarmament. AFP

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  Gorbachev makes his first appearance after a failed military coup in August 1991. AFP

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  Gorbachev and British Prime Minister John Major pose for a picture after the Soviet leader's arrival at Lancaster House, London, in July 1991. PA

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  Gorbachev and his wife shake hands with Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the entrance of Disneyland, Tokyo, in April 1992. AFP

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  Reagan and Gorbachev with their wives at a farm owned by the Reagans near Santa Barbara, California, in May 1992. Reuters

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  Gorbachev meets former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Moscow in May 1992. AFP

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  Gorbachev announces his candidacy for the Russian presidency at a press conference in Moscow in March 1996. AFP

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  Gorbachev wipes his tears as his daughter Irina looks on during a ceremony in Moscow to pay tribute to his late wife Raisa in September 1999. AFP

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  U2 lead singer Bono, former US president Bill Clinton and Gorbachev attend a dinner hosted by the former Soviet leader at the Russian Embassy in New York in March 2002. AP

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  US Secretary of State Colin Powell shakes hands with Gorbachev in Washington in April 2001. AFP

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  Gorbachev and Russian President Vladimir Putin before the start of a news conference in Schleswig, Germany, in December 2004. AP

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  Bush, Gorbachev and former German chancellor Helmut Kohl hold the 'Point Alpha Award' at the former demarcation line between East and West Germany in June 2005. EPA

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  Former German chancellor Angela Merkel and Gorbachev talk during the 'Petersburg Dialogue' conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, in October 2007. AFP

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  Gorbachev meets British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in January 2008 at 10 Downing Street in London. PA

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  Gorbachev holds talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011 at 10 Downing Street in London. PA

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  Former US President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with Gorbachev during the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Chicago, Illinois, in April 2012. EPA

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  Gorbachev and Bush shake hands during a commemorative event in Berlin in October 2009. AFP

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  Gorbachev attends the Moscow premiere of a film made by Werner Herzog and British filmmaker Andre Singer based on their conversations, in Moscow, Russia, in November 2018. AP

World leaders have paid tribute to former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev after he died at the age of 91.

Gorbachev has been hailed by western leaders for helping open up the Soviet Union to reforms during the 1980s when he was general secretary of the Communist party — landmark policies known as glasnost, or openness, and perestroika, or reform — while maintaining strong channels of dialogue with US president Ronald Reagan during times of high nuclear tension.

His policies, a departure from ideologically hard-line Communist leaders, are credited for a reduction in global nuclear arsenals and the peaceful break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, amid fears the union of states could slip into conflict with Russia — something that happened in later years leading to wars in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.

Praise for the late statesman was glowing, and even political rivals, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, sent condolences to Gorbachev’s family.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was part of the Spanish government when the Iron Curtain fell, remembered Gorbachev as a man who “sent a wind of freedom through Russian society".

"We learnt this night that Mikhail Gorbachev has passed away. I was a member of the Spanish government when the Iron [Curtain] fell, and [during] the coup d'etat in Moscow, I remember very well these historic days. Well, Mikhail Gorbachev sent a wind of freedom to the Russian society," Mr Borell said.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock remembered Gorbachev as a man who “contributed to the end of the Cold War and to the reunification of Germany. And for this we are eternally grateful to him as the Federal Republic of Germany".

Biden tribute

In the US, President Joe Biden praised “a man of remarkable vision and a rare leader”. The president, who had been in US politics for 18 years when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, said “it was easy to understand why so many worldwide held him in such high esteem”. Mr Biden said the decisions Gorbachev made, at considerable personal risk during the Soviet Union's collapse when hardliners opposed its dissolution, were the “acts of a rare leader — one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it”.

Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was an expert on the Soviet Union in the George HW Bush administration in the run-up to the fall of the Communist state, said Gorbachev was “a man who tried to deliver a better life for his people. His life was consequential because, without him and his courage, it would not have been possible to end the Cold War peacefully”.

In Asia, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that “Gorbachev had played an important role in overcoming a post-World War Two division in Europe and the East-West confrontation”.