(Adds Biden)
by David Ljunggren
Aug 31 (Reuters) – Mikhail Gorbachev, hailed for ending the Cold War without bloodshed but criticized by his critics for failing to prevent the fall of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday aged 91 years, officials at a hospital in the Russian capital Moscow said.
Ultimate President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev concluded arms control agreements with the United States and partnerships with Western powers to lift the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War II, allowing reunification of Germany.
But his sweeping internal reforms contributed to the Soviet Union’s weakening and then fall, a moment that Russian President Vladimir Putin has in the past described as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.
“Mikhail Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,” Russia’s Central Hospital said in a statement.
Vladimir Putin offered his “deep condolences”, said the Kremlin spokesman, quoted by the Interfax news agency. Dmitry Peskov added that the Russian president would send a telegram to the family and friends of the deceased on Wednesday.
Many world leaders paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev.
HE “CHANGED HISTORY”
US President Joe Biden said he believed the principles put forth by Mikhail Gorbachev were not mere slogans but “the way forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation” .
Emmanuel Macron hailed a “man of peace whose choices have opened a path to freedom for Russians”. “His commitment to peace in Europe has changed our common history,” added the French president on Twitter.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Mikhail Gorbachev paved the way for a free Europe.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply saddened by his death, describing Mikhail Gorbachev as a unique statesman who “changed the course of history”. “The world is losing a great leader, a committed multilateralist, and a tireless advocate for peace,” he added.
Citing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “(Gorbachev’s) tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example for all of us”.
After decades of tension and confrontation, Mikhail Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union and the West closer together than at any time since World War II.
His legacy was shattered in the final months of his life, with the invasion of Ukraine and the consequent sweeping Western sanctions against Russia, in a climate that politicians in Moscow and in the West alike a new Cold War.
Mikhail Gorbachev, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, will be buried alongside his wife Raisa, who died in 1999, in the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, the Tass news agency reported.
TURBULENT REFORMS
When pro-democracy protests spread across the USSR in 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev refrained from using force, unlike previous Kremlin leaders who sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
This movement fueled the desire for autonomy of some republics of the Soviet Union, which collapsed chaotically in the two years following the demonstrations, despite the efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev to avoid this fall.
Accessing the post of General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, when he was only 54 years old, Mikhail Gorbachev aimed to revitalize the system by establishing certain political and economic freedoms. But his reforms got out of control.
His policy of “glasnost” (free speech) allowed for hitherto unimaginable criticism of the Communist Party and the state, while emboldening nationalists who were beginning to call for the independence of the Baltic republics – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, among others.
Many Russians have never forgiven Mikhail Gorbachev for the turmoil caused by his reforms, denouncing the decline in their quality of life as too great a price to pay for democracy.
Vladimir Rogov, appointed by Moscow as responsible for a Ukrainian territory now occupied by the Russian army, described Mikhail Gorbachev as a traitor who “deliberately led the (Soviet) Union to its downfall”.
“He gave us freedom, but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the Russian army news outlet in June after visiting Mikhail Gorbachev at the ‘hospital.
(Reporting David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Mark Trevelyan in London, Roselle Chen in New York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; French version Jean Terzian)