MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, THE LAST SOVIET PRESIDENT, DIES AGED 91

  • 31/08/2022

Mikhail Gorbachev, who avoided violence to end the Cold War but was unable to stop 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 arms reduction agreements with the United States and forming alliances with Western nations.

 “Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted disease,” Russia’s Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “his deepest condolences” on Gorbachev’s death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told.

When pro-democracy protests swept across the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force - unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

But the protests fuelled aspirations for autonomy in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated over the next two years in chaotic fashion.

Gorbachev struggled in vain to prevent that collapse.

Related News

Thousands of Lebanese return home as Israel-Hezbollah ceasef ...
  • 30/11/2024
Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from soci ...
  • 30/11/2024
Israeli minister states IDF will remain in Gaza for ‘many ye ...
  • 30/11/2024
Canadian media organisations sue openAI over copyright viola ...
  • 30/11/2024
Man from Arizona arrested after threatening to kill Donald T ...
  • 30/11/2024
Israel PM reaffirms his plan to attack Rafah with ground for ...
  • 12/03/2024
Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan jailed for 10 years
  • 30/01/2024
ICJ orders Israel to stop genocide acts in Gaza
  • 26/01/2024
Iran bomb blast: More than 100 killed
  • 03/01/2024
Russia-Ukraine war: 14 killed in Russia’s Belgorod in shelli ...
  • 30/12/2023
Russia-Ukraine war: Biggest aerial attack on Ukraine cities
  • 30/12/2023
South Africa launches genocide case against Israel at UN Cou ...
  • 30/12/2023