Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who brought the Cold War to a peaceful end, has passed away aged 91.
Gorbachev, who took power in 1985, opened up the Soviet Union to the world and introduced a set of reforms at home.
The hospital in Moscow where he died said he had been suffering from a long and serious illness.
President Vladimir Putin has expressed his deepest condolences following Gorbachev's death, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Tributes have been paid worldwide, with UN chief António Guterres saying he "changed the course of history", reports BBC.
UN Secretary General Guterres wrote in a Twitter tribute saying, "Mikhail Gorbachev was a one-of-a kind statesman. The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist, and tireless advocate for peace."
In recent years his health has been in decline and he had been in and out of hospital. In June, international media reported that he had been admitted after suffering from a kidney ailment, though his cause of death has not been announced.
US President Joe Biden called him a "rare leader" and praised Gorbachev as a unique politician who had the "imagination to see that a different future was possible" amid the tensions of the Cold War.
Mikhail Gorbachev was unable to prevent the slow collapse of the Soviet Union, from which modern Russia emerged.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
