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.
Gorbachev was the the first and last president of the Soviet Union. He became the general secretary of the communist party in 1985, aged just 53, a post he held until the party was itself dissolved in 1991, with the Soviet Union vanishing soon afterwards.
He famously got on with Margaret Thatcher, meeting her for the first time in 1984 during a Soviet parliamentary visit to the UK. Thatcher enjoyed her encounters with Gorbachev.
And in summer 1989, he said that Communist countries were free to determine their own internal affairs.
Out of office, Gorbachev founded a charity, Green Cross International, which focused on the toxic nuclear and environmental legacy of the cold war. He made various tries to re-enter politics including an attempted comeback in the 1996 presidential election. All were unsuccessful.
