Moscow (Web Desk): Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev passed away on Tuesday after a protracted illness in Moscow. He was 91.
According to foreign media, Gorbachev, in power between 1985 and 1991, helped bring US-Soviet relations out of a deep freeze and was the last surviving Cold War leader.
The former Russian president's life was one of the most influential of his times, and his reforms as Soviet leader transformed his country and allowed Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule.
The changes he set in motion saw him lionised in the West, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, but also earned him the scorn of many Russians who lamented the end of their country´s role as a global superpower.
Gorbachev spent much of the past two decades on the political periphery, intermittently calling for the Kremlin and the White House to mend ties as tensions soared to Cold War levels after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched an offensive in Ukraine earlier this year.
Paying tribute to deceased leader, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Mikhail Gorbachev was a one-of-a kind statesman and the world has lost a tireless advocate for peace.