MOSCOW, August 31, 2022 (TBINN)
Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, is no more. He died at the age of 91.
The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given, so far.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered deep condolences over Gorbachev’s death and would send an official telegram to Gorbachev’s family.
Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes, though remaining in power for less than seven years that saw collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.
Gorbachev’s decline was humiliating. His power hopelessly sapped by an attempted coup against him in August 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Dec. 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later
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