Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader whose reforms led to the unlooked for break-up of his own country, and to the demise of communism across central and eastern Europe, has died in Moscow aged 91.
As well as domestic reform, Gorbachev ushered in a new era of detente with the west. He survived to see that period of cooperation come to a decisive end with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s return to international isolation. He had refrained from commenting on the war publicly, either due to deference to the Kremlin or fear of a backlash.
It was Gorbachev’s reluctance to use force solutions that would later earn him the Nobel peace prize. He dumped the Brezhnev doctrine, by which Moscow reserved the right to crush dissent within the client states of the Warsaw Pact. Ronald Reagan, left, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev enjoying a moment at Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in California.And in summer 1989, he said that Communist countries were free to determine their own internal affairs.
By 1990-91, the communist party’s grip was slipping. Gorbachev’s own position was becoming wobblier too, as hardliners sought to arrest the Soviet Union’s nascent implosion. In August 1991, a group of ultra-conservatives seized power in a coup while Gorbachev was on holiday in the Crimea. Their reign lasted three days.
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