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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91, according to Russian media reports.
His office said earlier that he was being treated at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
He died after a long illness, the news agency said, citing medical institutions.
Mikhail Gorbachev and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, October 1986.Image: Associated Press
Tribute to those who brought the Cold War to an end – Live updates
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences, according to a Kremlin spokesman.
One of the most important figures of the late 20th century, Mr Gorbachev was known for his bloodless end to the Cold War, but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He signed arms-cutting deals with the United States, including former President Ronald Reagan, and forged partnerships with Western powers to dismantle the Iron Curtain that has divided Europe since World War II and unified Germany.
He set out to reinvigorate the communist system, and in 15 Soviet republics – Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia .
But in the space of six years, both communism and the alliance collapsed.
He has attempted simultaneous political and economic reforms on an overly ambitious scale, unleashing forces beyond his control.
In 1989, when pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet bloc countries of communist Eastern Europe, he did not use force — unlike his predecessors, who deployed tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
However, the demonstrations sparked a desire for self-government in the republic.
His series of extraordinary reforms soon overtook him and led to the collapse of the authoritarian state.
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Gorbachev, known for his bloodless end to the Cold War, failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 1985, when he became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the age of 54, he set out to revive the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his policies spiralled out of control.
An attempted coup against him in August 1991 eroded his power, and he watched the republic declare independence for the final months of his term until he resigned on Christmas Day 1991.
The next day, the Soviet Union officially disintegrated.
His “open” policy – freedom of speech – allowed previously unimaginable criticism of the party and state, but also encouraged nationalists who began to fight for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and others.
Many Russians have never forgiven the turmoil caused by Mr Gorbachev’s reforms because they believed the subsequent dramatic drop in living standards was too high a price for democracy.
He later said he had not considered the use of extensive force to try to keep the Soviet Union together because he feared chaos in the nuclear state.
“This country is loaded with weapons. It will immediately push the country into civil war,” he said.
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