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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has reportedly died at the age of 91 after a long health struggle, according to Russian news outlets.
Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax news outlets named the Central Clinical Hospital. Gorbachev’s office previously said he was being treated in hospital after a serious and long illness.
Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in December 1991. As general secretary and president, he helped conclude arms reduction agreements with the United States and other Western nations and bring down the Iron Curtain.
In less than seven years in power, Gorbachev brought about a breathtaking series of changes. But they soon overtook him, leading to the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the liberation of Eastern European countries from Russian rule, and the end of decades of nuclear confrontation between East and West.
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His decline was humiliating. His power was hopelessly undermined by an attempted coup against him in August 1991. He spent the last few months watching over the republic until he resigned on December 25, 1991, after the republic declared independence. The Soviet Union fell into oblivion the next day.
A quarter-century after its collapse, Gorbachev told the Associated Press that he had never thought of using large-scale force to unite the Soviet Union because he feared chaos in the nuclear powers.
“The country was overrun with weapons, and that would have quickly pushed the country into civil war,” he said.
Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his work in ending the Cold War, and in his later years attracted accolades and awards from around the world. However, he was widely despised in his household.
Russians blamed him for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. His former allies deserted him, making him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.
“Mikhail Gorbachev is as respected in the West as he is hated in Russia,” former Defense Intelligence Agency agent Rebekah Koffler told Fox News. (glasnost and perestroika) and to the Russians destroyed the USSR.”
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State news agency TASS reported that Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife Raisa at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery. He is survived by his daughter Irina and his two granddaughters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.