Gorbachev Russian Media Say Ex Soviet President Has Died

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without blood but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction agreements with the United States and alliances with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had separated Europe since World War II and bring about the reunification of Germany. But his sweeping domestic reforms helped weaken the Soviet Union to the point of its dissolution, a moment President Vladimir Putin called the “greatest geopolitical disaster” of the twentieth century. “Mikhail Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and prolonged illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital of Russia said in a statement. Putin expressed his “heartfelt condolences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency. “Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolence to his family and friends,” he said. Putin said in 2018 that he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he could, news agencies reported at the time. World leaders rushed to pay tribute. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Gorbachev paved the way for a free Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, citing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said Gorbachev’s “tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.” After decades of Cold War tension and confrontation, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II. But he saw that legacy destroyed in the final months of his life, as the invasion of Ukraine led to the collapse of Western sanctions on Moscow and politicians in both Russia and the West began to talk of a new Cold War. “Gorbachev died symbolically when his life’s work, freedom, was effectively destroyed by Putin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, who died in 1999, Tass said, citing the foundation the former Soviet leader established once he left power. When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using violence – unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But the protests fueled aspirations for autonomy in the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, which disintegrated over the next two years in chaotic fashion. Gorbachev – who was briefly ousted in an August 1991 coup by party hardliners – struggled in vain to prevent this collapse. “The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of our entry into a world without missiles … but there was a miscalculation: we did not know our country well,” said Vladimir Shevchenko, who he was head of Gorbachev’s protocol office when he was Soviet leader. “Our union was dissolved, this was a tragedy and his tragedy,” the RIA news agency reported. When he became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, aged just 54, he had set out to revitalize the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his reforms got out of hand. “He was a good man – he was a decent man. I think his tragedy is in a sense that he was very decent for the country he led,” said Gorbachev biographer William Taubman, professor emeritus at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” – freedom of speech – allowed for previously unthinkable criticism of party and state, but also emboldened nationalists who began pushing for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere. Many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the upheaval his reforms unleashed, seeing the subsequent plunge in their living standards as too high a price to pay for democracy. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in a part of Ukraine now held by pro-Moscow forces, said Gorbachev “deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its own destruction” and called him a traitor. “He gave us all the freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news agency Zvezda after Gorbachev visited the hospital in June. “Gorbachev lived to see some of his worst fears realized and his brightest dreams drowned in blood and dirt. But he will be remembered fondly by historians and one day – I believe – by Russians,” he said. Cold War historian Sergei Radchenko. (Reporting by David Ljunggren, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Kevin Liffey)

title: “Gorbachev Russian Media Say Ex Soviet President Has Died Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-28” author: “Samuel Bueti”

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without blood but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction agreements with the United States and alliances with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had separated Europe since World War II and bring about the reunification of Germany. But his sweeping domestic reforms helped weaken the Soviet Union to the point of its dissolution, a moment President Vladimir Putin called the “greatest geopolitical disaster” of the twentieth century. “Mikhail Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and prolonged illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital of Russia said in a statement. Putin expressed his “heartfelt condolences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency. “Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolence to his family and friends,” he said. Putin said in 2018 that he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he could, news agencies reported at the time. World leaders rushed to pay tribute. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Gorbachev paved the way for a free Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, citing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said Gorbachev’s “tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.” After decades of Cold War tension and confrontation, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II. But he saw that legacy destroyed in the final months of his life, as the invasion of Ukraine led to the collapse of Western sanctions on Moscow and politicians in both Russia and the West began to talk of a new Cold War. “Gorbachev died symbolically when his life’s work, freedom, was effectively destroyed by Putin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, who died in 1999, Tass said, citing the foundation the former Soviet leader established once he left power. When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using violence – unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But the protests fueled aspirations for autonomy in the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, which disintegrated over the next two years in chaotic fashion. Gorbachev – who was briefly ousted in an August 1991 coup by party hardliners – struggled in vain to prevent this collapse. “The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of our entry into a world without missiles … but there was a miscalculation: we did not know our country well,” said Vladimir Shevchenko, who he was head of Gorbachev’s protocol office when he was Soviet leader. “Our union was dissolved, this was a tragedy and his tragedy,” the RIA news agency reported. When he became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, aged just 54, he had set out to revitalize the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his reforms got out of hand. “He was a good man – he was a decent man. I think his tragedy is in a sense that he was very decent for the country he led,” said Gorbachev biographer William Taubman, professor emeritus at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” – freedom of speech – allowed for previously unthinkable criticism of party and state, but also emboldened nationalists who began pushing for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere. Many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the upheaval his reforms unleashed, seeing the subsequent plunge in their living standards as too high a price to pay for democracy. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in a part of Ukraine now held by pro-Moscow forces, said Gorbachev “deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its own destruction” and called him a traitor. “He gave us all the freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news agency Zvezda after Gorbachev visited the hospital in June. “Gorbachev lived to see some of his worst fears realized and his brightest dreams drowned in blood and dirt. But he will be remembered fondly by historians and one day – I believe – by Russians,” he said. Cold War historian Sergei Radchenko. (Reporting by David Ljunggren, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Kevin Liffey)

title: “Gorbachev Russian Media Say Ex Soviet President Has Died Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-10” author: “William Brewer”

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without blood but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction agreements with the United States and alliances with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had separated Europe since World War II and bring about the reunification of Germany. But his sweeping domestic reforms helped weaken the Soviet Union to the point of its dissolution, a moment President Vladimir Putin called the “greatest geopolitical disaster” of the twentieth century. “Mikhail Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and prolonged illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital of Russia said in a statement. Putin expressed his “heartfelt condolences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency. “Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolence to his family and friends,” he said. Putin said in 2018 that he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he could, news agencies reported at the time. World leaders rushed to pay tribute. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Gorbachev paved the way for a free Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, citing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said Gorbachev’s “tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.” After decades of Cold War tension and confrontation, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II. But he saw that legacy destroyed in the final months of his life, as the invasion of Ukraine led to the collapse of Western sanctions on Moscow and politicians in both Russia and the West began to talk of a new Cold War. “Gorbachev died symbolically when his life’s work, freedom, was effectively destroyed by Putin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, who died in 1999, Tass said, citing the foundation the former Soviet leader established once he left power. When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using violence – unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But the protests fueled aspirations for autonomy in the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, which disintegrated over the next two years in chaotic fashion. Gorbachev – who was briefly ousted in an August 1991 coup by party hardliners – struggled in vain to prevent this collapse. “The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of our entry into a world without missiles … but there was a miscalculation: we did not know our country well,” said Vladimir Shevchenko, who he was head of Gorbachev’s protocol office when he was Soviet leader. “Our union was dissolved, this was a tragedy and his tragedy,” the RIA news agency reported. When he became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, aged just 54, he had set out to revitalize the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his reforms got out of hand. “He was a good man – he was a decent man. I think his tragedy is in a sense that he was very decent for the country he led,” said Gorbachev biographer William Taubman, professor emeritus at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” – freedom of speech – allowed for previously unthinkable criticism of party and state, but also emboldened nationalists who began pushing for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere. Many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the upheaval his reforms unleashed, seeing the subsequent plunge in their living standards as too high a price to pay for democracy. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in a part of Ukraine now held by pro-Moscow forces, said Gorbachev “deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its own destruction” and called him a traitor. “He gave us all the freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news agency Zvezda after Gorbachev visited the hospital in June. “Gorbachev lived to see some of his worst fears realized and his brightest dreams drowned in blood and dirt. But he will be remembered fondly by historians and one day – I believe – by Russians,” he said. Cold War historian Sergei Radchenko. (Reporting by David Ljunggren, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Kevin Liffey)

title: “Gorbachev Russian Media Say Ex Soviet President Has Died Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-14” author: “Joe Helmy”

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without blood but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction agreements with the United States and alliances with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had separated Europe since World War II and bring about the reunification of Germany. But his sweeping domestic reforms helped weaken the Soviet Union to the point of its dissolution, a moment President Vladimir Putin called the “greatest geopolitical disaster” of the twentieth century. “Mikhail Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and prolonged illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital of Russia said in a statement. Putin expressed his “heartfelt condolences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency. “Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolence to his family and friends,” he said. Putin said in 2018 that he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he could, news agencies reported at the time. World leaders rushed to pay tribute. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Gorbachev paved the way for a free Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, citing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said Gorbachev’s “tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.” After decades of Cold War tension and confrontation, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II. But he saw that legacy destroyed in the final months of his life, as the invasion of Ukraine led to the collapse of Western sanctions on Moscow and politicians in both Russia and the West began to talk of a new Cold War. “Gorbachev died symbolically when his life’s work, freedom, was effectively destroyed by Putin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, who died in 1999, Tass said, citing the foundation the former Soviet leader established once he left power. When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using violence – unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But the protests fueled aspirations for autonomy in the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, which disintegrated over the next two years in chaotic fashion. Gorbachev – who was briefly ousted in an August 1991 coup by party hardliners – struggled in vain to prevent this collapse. “The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of our entry into a world without missiles … but there was a miscalculation: we did not know our country well,” said Vladimir Shevchenko, who he was head of Gorbachev’s protocol office when he was Soviet leader. “Our union was dissolved, this was a tragedy and his tragedy,” the RIA news agency reported. When he became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, aged just 54, he had set out to revitalize the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his reforms got out of hand. “He was a good man – he was a decent man. I think his tragedy is in a sense that he was very decent for the country he led,” said Gorbachev biographer William Taubman, professor emeritus at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” – freedom of speech – allowed for previously unthinkable criticism of party and state, but also emboldened nationalists who began pushing for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere. Many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the upheaval his reforms unleashed, seeing the subsequent plunge in their living standards as too high a price to pay for democracy. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in a part of Ukraine now held by pro-Moscow forces, said Gorbachev “deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its own destruction” and called him a traitor. “He gave us all the freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news agency Zvezda after Gorbachev visited the hospital in June. “Gorbachev lived to see some of his worst fears realized and his brightest dreams drowned in blood and dirt. But he will be remembered fondly by historians and one day – I believe – by Russians,” he said. Cold War historian Sergei Radchenko. (Reporting by David Ljunggren, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Kevin Liffey)