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Mikhail Gorbachev stood for freedom, openness, peace and closer ties with the outside world

Mikhail Gorbachev stepped onto a Washington street and began shaking hands to cheers and applause in 1990 -- a bit of unaccustomed political showmanship worthy of his friend Ronald Reagan. Ana Maria Guzman was in the park on her lunch break that May when she saw the Soviet leader, who…

When Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, he had no greater champion than Mikhail Gorbachev. But as Putin slowly transformed Russia into an imperial presidency, the two men turned against each other.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. Given the tributes being paid to him in the West for his efforts to end the Cold War, it might be difficult to appreciate just how unpopular he became in his native Russia.

The whole world has much to thank Mikhail Gorbachev for. As many have pointed out since his death in Moscow earlier this week, Gorbachev – the last leader of the Soviet Union – did more than anyone to bring the Cold War to an end peacefully, reducing the threat that…

The death of Mikhail Gorbachev prompted gushing tributes from across the West on Wednesday but much less of a reaction in Russia. FRANCE 24 examines why Gorbachev is lionised in the West for his role in ending the Cold War, but scorned in Russia for overseeing the collapse of the…

Mikhail Gorbachev was a voice of sanity in a crazy cold war world, and his death marks the end of a particular era in 20th century history. During his time as leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991), Gorbachev brought about enormous change in Russian politics and society, in international relations,…

Mikhail Gorbachev was a contradictory figure; his legacy, complex. Hailed in the West as a democrat and liberator of his people – which he genuinely was – he increasingly became despised by many within Russia for destroying the Soviet Union and dismantling a great power.

Widely praised in the West as a towering statesman who helped end the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev was remembered in the Baltic states on Wednesday as a repressive autocrat who unsuccessfully tried to stop them from breaking away from the Soviet Union.