Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30 at the age of 91 in Moscow after a long-term illness. He was a politician whose name will be forever linked with the end of the Cold War era. Politicians and experts say Gorbachev was an important figure for Russia whose name will remain in history. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his deep condolences over the passing of the ex-USSR president.
"Gorbachev was, undoubtedly, the most striking politician of his time. Yet, for everyone born in the Soviet Union he remains a complex and contradictory historical figure," LDPR leader and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said. "Speaking as a Christian, it’s a loss, much like it was a loss of that great country with the processes of its collapse beginning precisely during the era of ‘perestroika’ and the ‘new thinking,’ abetting those who aspired to wipe the USSR off the political world map," he added.
