Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is suffering from kidney disease, according to the Russian news website Mash. The 91-year-old would receive hemodialysis, a treatment in which a machine purifies the blood. Mash wrote on Monday that Gorbachev’s health problems crop up from time to time. His kidney disease has not been confirmed.
Doctors were said to be examining the last president of the Soviet Union for a year. Gorbachev has only recently started receiving hospital treatments, the website said. With kidney dialysis, a person is connected to a dialysis machine for an average of four hours three or four times a week.
Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. He carried out reforms and improved relations with the West during his reign. His policies eventually led to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the West, he has been much praised for his reforms, but many Russians hold him responsible for the demise of the Soviet Union. In recent years he has led a secluded life in Russia. In 2019, Gorbachev was already hospitalized for health problems, about which he has not made any further announcements.
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