Mikhail Gorbachev, who avoided violence to end the Cold War but was unable to save the fall of the Soviet Union, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91, according to hospital officials in Moscow.
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, worked to bring about the reunification of Germany by negotiating armaments reduction agreements with the United States and forming alliances with Western nations.
However, his internal changes contributed to the Soviet Union’s decline until its dissolution, which President Vladimir Putin has dubbed the “biggest geopolitical calamity” of the 20th century.
According to Russia’s Central Clinical Hospital, Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted illness.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin conveyed “his profound sympathies.” He remarked, “He will send a telegraph of sympathy to his family and friends tomorrow.”
Gorbachev pushed the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any time since World War Two, ending decades of Cold War hostility and conflict.
Grigory Yavlinsky, a former leader of the liberal opposition in Russia, said: “He provided freedom to hundreds of millions of people in Russia and around it, as well as half of Europe.” Few historical figures have shaped their era with such force.
World leaders quickly expressed their gratitude. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, claimed that Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, had paved the path for a free Europe.
After so many years of isolation and misery, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that he had believed in “glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as empty platitudes, but as the route ahead for the people of the Soviet Union.”
In reference to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that Gorbachev’s “tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”
Featured Image: Wikimedia Commons
NEWS SOURCE: CRUCIAL NEWS GLOBAL
💫FOLLOW US FOR MORE UPDATES. ❌WE DO NOT HAVE IRRITATING AND SPAMMY NEWSLETTERS. ✅EVERYTHING IS AND WILL BE FREE FOREVER. SEE YOU AGAIN IN YOUR STORIES AND FEED 🙂