The former Soviet leader dies in a Moscow hospital at the age of 91
former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, architect of the first steps of modern Russia, died this Tuesday in a Moscow hospital at 91 years old.
Gorbachev has died after a long disease, according to the Central Clinical Hospital, reports the Interfax agency.
Gorbachev led the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991, first at the head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Supreme Soviet and later as president. His career culminated in 1991, when he resigned after the dissolution agreement signed with Belarus and Ukraine, already with the Iron Curtain in retreat.
Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1990, symbolizes the end of an era for the once powerful Soviet Union and his legacy remains uncomfortable in certain sectors, in such a way that his image is not as revered as that of other leaders associated with times of greatness. .
The current president, Vladimir Putin, has nonetheless recognized him as one of the most important statesmen in history on a world level, but the truth is that in recent years he remained in a discreet political background. There is no official statement on the current war in Ukraine.
Gorbachev insisted in March 2021, on his 90th birthday, in his defense of the perestroika, the reformist policy that opened the doors of what is now Russia, remains his great political legacy. He considers this initiative his greatest political achievement.
“I am completely convinced that it was necessary and that we moved in the right direction,” he said then in an interview with the TASS agency, recalling a stage in which “the people gained freedom” and “a totalitarian system” was ended.