Former reformist Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his deepest condolences.
Gorbachev was one of the most significant figures of the late 20th century, known especially for ending the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the eventual splinter of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Gorbachev promoted weapons reduction agreements with the US, including former president Ronald Reagan, and partnered with western powers to remove the Iron Curtain which had divided Europe since World War Two and bring about the reunification of Germany.
He set out to regenerate the Communist system and shape a new union based on a more equal partnership between the 15 republics of the USSR – Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
But in the space of six years, both Communism and the Union came crashing down. He attempted political and economic reforms simultaneously and on too ambitious a scale. When pro-democracy protests swept across the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force, unlike predecessors who had deployed tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
However, the demonstrations fuelled aspirations for autonomy in the republics. His extraordinary reforms soon overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian state.