The last leader of the Soviet Union, former president Mikhail Gorbachev, has died aged 91, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.
“Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow told Russian agencies.
Gorbachev was in power between 1985 and 1991 and was the last surviving Cold War leader.
He spent much of the past two decades on the political periphery.
He called for the Kremlin and the White House to mend relations as tension soared to Cold War levels after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched an offensive in Ukraine this year.
Gorbachev spent the twilight years of his life in and out of hospital with deteriorating health, and stayed in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic as a precaution against Covid-19.
He was remembered fondly in the West, where he was referred to affectionately as “Gorby”. He was best known for defusing US-Soviet nuclear tension in the 1980s, and bringing Eastern Europe out from behind the Iron Curtain.
Gorbachev won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for negotiating a nuclear arms pact with US president Ronald Reagan.
His decision to withhold the Red Army when the Berlin Wall fell a year earlier was regarded as crucial to preserving Cold War peace.
He was also praised in the West for leading reforms to achieve transparency and greater public discussion that hastened the break-up of the Soviet empire.
Gorbachev will be buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999, Tass news agency reported.
Late on Tuesday, there were tributes to Gorbachev from around the world.
In the UAE, Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President, called Gorbachev a "historical" figure.
"Mikhail Gorbachev, who left us yesterday, is a historical and tragic figure at the same time," Dr Gargash wrote on Twitter.
"He sought to reform the Soviet Union and co-operate with the international system, ending the Cold War, the intervention in Afghanistan and the arms race, to finally see the disintegration of the union due to history and the economy. The lesson is that history is written by results, not intentions."
Despite Gorbachev's often difficult relationship with President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader nonetheless expressed his sadness.
“President Putin expresses his deep sympathies over the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. In the morning, he will send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
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General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (right) shaking hands with Syrian President Hafez Al Assad in Moscow on June 19, 1985. AFP -
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (right) and his Vice President Tarek Aziz in Moscow with Mr Gorbachev (left) and his Foreign Minister Edward Shevardnadze during their visit to Soviet Union in 1985. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev with Yasser Arafat, President of Palestine Liberation Organisation, in East Berlin on April 17, 1986 during the 11th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany. AFP -
Delegates attend the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. The 1991 conference for the Middle East was the first time Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians all came together for negotiations. Pictured from left are Soviet President Mr Gorbachev, Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, US President George Bush, US Secretary of State James Baker, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, Palestinian delegate Abdel Haidar Shafi, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber. Getty Images -
Jordan's Queen Noor greets Mr Gorbachev in Amman in 1998. Mr Gorbachev is in Jordan to give a lecture on the UN Leadership Programme. AFP -
World leaders and Nobel laureates participate in a conference, organised by the Peres Centre for Peace to add impetus to the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, join hands in January 1999 at the end of the two-day meeting in Ramallah. Pictured from left are Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Costa Rican president Oscar Sanchez, Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, ex-Soviet leader Mr Gorbachev and former South African president FW de Klerk. AFP -
Former Soviet president Mr Gorbachev (right) is greeted by former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres after the latter's speech to the second annual meeting of the board of the Peres Centre for Peace in Tel Aviv in January 1999. AFP -
Former Soviet president Mr Gorbachev shakes hands with UN official and former Egyptian minister Mervat Tallawy at the UN head office in Beirut in April 2003. Mr Gorbachev called on the US and Britain to end the "bloodbath" in Iraq and allow the UN to resolve the crisis. AFP -
Former Russian Mr Gorbachev (left) meets Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut in 2003. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev (centre) speaks with Iraqi boys Ali Ismael Abbas (right) and his friend Ahmed (left) during an awards ceremony where Dr Ahmed Al Shatti, representing Iraqi and Kuwaiti doctors, was honoured with the "Men of the year award" for work during the Iraq war at the World Awards gala in Hamburg on October 22, 2003. Reuters -
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman (left) with Mr Gorbachev at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 1, 2010. Gorbachev is on a private visit to Lebanon. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev speaks to journalists at the Middle East and North Africa Cristal Festival at a hotel in Faraya, north-east of Beirut, on February 2, 2010. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev speaks during the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2014) in Sharjah on February 23, 2014. The event, gathering international professionals from government, private and media sectors, has the theme "Different Roles...Mutual Interest. AFP
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist and tireless advocate for peace.”
He also said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of his passing and added he was “a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history”.
“He did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War,” Mr Guterres said.
EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen praised Gorbachev as a “trusted and respected leader”.
“He played a crucial role to end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain. It opened the way for a free Europe. This legacy is one we will not forget,” she said on Twitter.
Departing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also paid tribute to Gorbachev on Twitter.
“I’m saddened to hear of the death of Gorbachev," he said.
“I always admired the courage and integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.
“In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Gorbachev “performed great services” but was “not able to implement all of his visions”, telling BBC’s Newsnight: “The people of Eastern Europe and the German people, and in the end the Russian people, owe him a great debt of gratitude for the inspiration, for the courage in coming forward with these ideas of freedom.
“He will still be remembered in history as a man who started historic transformations that were to the benefit of mankind and to the Russian people.”
Key dates in the life of ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
- March 2, 1931: Born into a peasant family in the village of Privolnoye in the southern Stavropol region.
- 1946: Starts working as a driver of a combine harvester on a collective farm. Joins Young Communist League.
- 1952: Joins the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made up of several socialist republics.
- 1953: Marries Raisa Titarenko whom he met at university while studying law. They had a daughter, Irina, in 1957. Raisa died from leukaemia in 1999.
- 1985-1991: Leads the Soviet Union as general secretary of the Communist Party and as president when the post is introduced in 1990.
- October 1985: Presents a modernising economic reform plan known as perestroika.
- 1987: He and the US President Ronald Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty on slashing their nuclear arsenals, ending a superpower build-up of warheads.
- 1988-1989: Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan, defeated after a 10-year campaign.
- 1990: Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for reforms leading to the end of the Cold War between Eastern and Western blocs.
- August 1991: Hardline communists attempt failed coup while Gorbachev is on holiday in Crimea. A series of Soviet republics begin declaring independence.
- December 1991: After the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine conclude that the Soviet Union no longer exists and sign accords for its dissolution, Gorbachev resigns.
- 1996: He stands as an independent in presidential polls but takes only 0.5 per cent of the vote. Boris Yeltsin won the election.
