Mikhail Gorbachev: Boris Johnson pays tribute to ‘courage and integrity’ of former Soviet leader

Watch: Boris Johnson pays warm tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev

• Obituary: Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union who helped to end the Cold War

World leaders and celebrities paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for changing "the course of history" by ending the Cold War following his death on Tuesday night at the age of 91.

Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed his "deep sympathies" over the death of the last Soviet leader, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said soon after the news of his passing.

"In the morning he will send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends," Mr Peskov told Russian news agencies.

The two men were reported to mistrust each other.

Mr Putin blamed Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev considered Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February a betrayal.

Boris Johnson was among the many world leaders to make reference to the timing of the former Soviet leader's death, during the worst period of relations between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

Mr Johnson said he was "saddened" by the news. "I always admired the courage and integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion," the Prime Minister said.

He added: "In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all."

Joe Biden hailed Gorbachev's reforms as "the acts of a rare leader" who had "the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it."

Gorbachev, Mr Biden said, helped to forge a "safer world and greater freedom for millions of people".

Irish premier Micheal Martin said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the most significant political figures of the late 20th century.

"At a time when the threat to the world of nuclear destruction was very real, he saw the urgent need for rapprochement with the West and for greater openness and reform - glasnost and perestroika - in the then Soviet Union.

"His leadership helped to end the arms race between the East and West, end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the Second World War."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Gorbachev was "one of the great figures" of the last century who will "forever be remembered".

The comments were echoed by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who said Gorbachev's legacy is "one we will not forget".

She said: "It opened the way for a free Europe. This legacy is one we will not forget. R.I.P Mikhail Gorbachev."

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said Gorbachev was "a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history".

"He did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War," Mr Guterres said.

The Reagan Foundation and Institute said it "mourns the loss of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev".

"A man who once was a political adversary of Ronald Reagan’s who ended up becoming a friend.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Gorbachev family and the people of Russia."

Gorbachev's passing was mourned in California too. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-American actor and former California governor, described Gorbachev as "one of my heroes".

"There's an old saying, 'Never meet your heroes'. I think that's some of the worst advice I've ever heard," he said.

"Mikhail Gorbachev was one of my heroes, and it was an honor and a joy to meet him. I was unbelievably lucky to call him a friend.

"All of us can learn from his fantastic life."

BBC presenter and author John Simpson, who interviewed Gorbachev, described the former Soviet president as "a decent, well-intentioned, principled man".

He said: "In private he was charming and surprisingly amusing. It wasn't his fault things went so wrong."

The death of Gorbachev, who was Soviet leader between 1985 and 1991, was reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The news agency said that Gorbachev had died of a “serious and prolonged illness” at the Central Clinic Hospital.

Gorbachev was said to be gravely ill earlier this year with a kidney ailment.

The Russian loved by the West

Loved by the West and despised by hardliners within the Soviet Union’s Communist Party, Gorbachev is credited with helping to end the Cold War and presiding over the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1990, Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations”.

The charming and modernising Gorbachev was voted in as Communist Party General Secretary in 1985, the de facto leader of the Soviet Union when its leadership had been in disarray since the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982.

He was the architect of freedoms for many people living in the Soviet Union but also relaxed the control of the authorities, and has been blamed for breaking the Communist system that Vladimir Lenin set up after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

The Soviet Union that he tried to breathe new life into with his liberal reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost, creaked and broke in 1991. It splintered into several new or reborn countries, sparking a sharp economic decline that set off nationalism in across the region and allowed the oligarchs to grab.

Gorbachev was the target of a failed hardline coup and by the end of 1991 he had resigned in favour of the ascending Boris Yeltsin.

Mistrust of Putin

Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, were reported to mistrust each other. Gorbachev considered Mr Putin’s aggression toward former Soviet states, his invasion of Georgia in 2008 and his invasion of Ukraine in February as betrayals.

Mr Putin blamed Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he has made rebuilding the focus of his presidency.
There has, so far, been no reaction to news of Gorbachev’s death from the Kremlin but pro-war and pro-Kremlin channels have rejoiced, calling him a “traitor”.

Gorbachev described his friendly relationship with Margaret Thatcher as a catalyst for the tearing down of the Iron Curtain.
“We gradually developed personal relations that became increasingly friendly,” he said following her death in 2013.

“In the end, we were able to achieve mutual understanding, and this contributed to a change in the atmosphere between our country and the West and to the end of the Cold War.”

Respect for Thatcher – but Reagan was a ‘caveman’

The former Soviet leader met the Prime Minister in 1984, when he led a Russian parliamentary delegation to Britain.
After that meeting, Mrs Thatcher said of Gorbachev: “We can do business together”.

Gorbachev conceded that the relationship was "not always smooth" but said they "stayed in touch, exchanging letters" over the years.

Gorbachev did not appear to have the same respect for Reagan. Declassified documents show that after the US-Soviet summit at Reykjavik in 1986, Gorbachev complained of Reagan's “extreme primitivism, a caveman cast of mind and intellectual feebleness”.

Mrs Thatcher was an important interloper between the two men - “an agent of influence in both directions” - as her former foreign policy adviser Sir Percy Cradock put it.

Gorbachev was known to enjoy holding vigorous debates with Mrs Thatcher and valued her attention to detail and ability to work long hours with little sleep, traits they shared.

Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, wrote on Twitter. "Mikhail Gorbachev’s reported death... is a reminder of how far Russia has fallen. From a powerful, if tyrannical state to now the playpen of gangsters and war criminals."

Some online tributes offered a lighthearted salute to another memorable moment in Gorbachev's life: an advert for Pizza Hut.

The US restaurant chain opened in Moscow in 1990.

The 1998 advert features Gorbachev sitting in the restaurant while a family at another table debate Gorbachev's political legacy.

The family matriarch concludes that Gorbachev has given Russia "many things" - including Pizza Hut.

One Twitter user wrote: "This Mikhail Gorbachev Pizza Hut commercial is what historians will someday say marked the real end of the cold war and is a masterpiece."