Soviet-era leader Gorbachev dies aged 91: Russian media report

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, Russian news agencies cited hospital officials as saying.

Gorbachev forged arms reduction deals with the United States and partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War Two and bring about the reunification of Germany.

"Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted disease," Interfax news agency cited Russia's Central Clinical Hospital as saying in a statement.

Gorbachev will be buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999, said Tass news agency, citing a source familiar with the family's wishes.

When pro-democracy protests swept across the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force - unlike previous Kremlin leaders who had sent tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The protests fuelled aspirations for autonomy in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated over the next two years, which gave rise to a few independent states later on.

source: Reuters