GLOBAL (CU)_ On Tuesday, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union passed away at the age of 91, in Moscow, according to Russian news agencies.
The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow declared his death last evening, and claimed it to be due to his long-term illness.
Gorbachev was the last surviving Cold War leader who was in power between 1985 and 1991. He pulled the US-Soviet relationships out of a deep freeze and spent much of the last two decades, administering the political climate and trying to mend ties as tensions between nations heightened after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and launched attacks on Ukraine earlier this year.
Due to this, Gorbachev and President Vladimir Putin didn’t have the best relationship, yet the latter expressed his deepest sympathies at the demise of the former and promised to send a telegram of condolences to Gorbachev’s family and friends.
Gorbachev, or Gorby, as he was known fondly in the West, was always welcomed in that part of the world due to his efforts in diffusing the US-Soviet tension in the 1980s. In the year 1990, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a historic nuclear arms pact with US leader Ronald Reagan and his decision to withhold the Soviet army when the Berlin Wall fell a year earlier was seen as key to preserving Cold War peace.
He was also responsible for bringing Eastern Europe out from behind the Iron Curtain. European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen said on the occasion of his demise, ” “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.”
Gorbachev was fighting adverse health conditions for a while. He spent the last of his time in fragile health, spending a lot of time at the hospital and in self-quarantine, especially during the pandemic. His death is the fall of a hero, and a personality enriched with historical value, and his legacy will always be remembered.
