'He changed the course of history': The world reacts to the death of Mikhail Gorbachev

Tributes have poured in from around the world for the former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, whose death was announced last night. However, there are many different views of his legacy, Robert Moore reports.

The world is reacting to the death of one of the most influential men of the 20th century.

Mikhail Gorbachev died on Tuesday in Moscow at the age of 91. He was a truly transformational leader who oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union, the largely peaceful dismemberment of the Russian empire, and the fall of communism.

To many leaders, especially those in the West, in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, Gorbachev's decision to let this happen on his watch was an act of singular political courage.

To many Russians, who witnessed the fall of communism with ambivalence and then watched the rise of predatory and rapacious oligarchs, Gorbachev made a catastrophic strategic blunder.

The Russian and global reaction reflects this divide.

The Kremlin’s spokesman described Gorbachev as a “romantic” who was fooled by the West. Dmitry Peskov, one of Putin’s closest aides, added: “That romanticism did not work out. The bloodthirstiness of our opponents showed itself and it is good that we have realized and understood it in time."

In a more personal message to Gorbachev’s family, President Putin wrote that the last Soviet leader was “a politician and statesman who had a huge impact on the course of world history."

But beyond doubt, Putin has spent much of his rule trying to roll back Gorbachev’s reforms, especially the intellectual and political freedoms that were a hallmark of the late 1980s.

But, in contrast, from the White House, Joe Biden said that Gorbachev's dramatic reforms were "acts of a brave leader, one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it." The president added: "The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people."

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, described Mr Gorbachev as a unique leader “who changed the course of history.” He did more than anyone to end the Cold War, Mr Guterres said, by “pursuing the path of negotiation, reform, transparency and disarmament."

But Russian critics, among them President Vladimir Putin, have long been deeply critical of his rule and will not mourn his passing. They are working to return Russia to a pre-Gorbachev era of empire and repression.

Gorbachev ruled Russia for six tumultuous years, from 1985 until Christmas Day 1991.

I witnessed for myself the extraordinary reforms he triggered. There was the emergence of freedom of expression, economic liberalisation, the end of the harassment of dissidents, and far greater travel opportunities for ordinary Russians. Moscow was a politically exciting and riveting city in the late 1980s - economically distressed, yes, but the dreariness of the communist era was replaced by a liberal cultural renaissance.

But it couldn't - and didn't - last.

Gorbachev was squeezed between conservative elements who rightly felt he was an existential threat to the USSR, and forces of raw capitalist greed who saw a political vacuum and wanted to enrich themselves.

The oligarchs of the Yeltsin era took control of the economy.

That economic chaos paved the wave for a return to the authoritarianism of Putin.

James Mates reports on the reaction from Europe, where Gorbachev's legacy looms large

There is tragic irony in the timing of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. His mother was Ukrainian, his father was Russian. He believed that Ukraine and Russia should have an intimate bond.

And yet Gorbachev's final six months of life saw a savage war between the two neighbours. He saw his liberal reforms mocked and despised by the new Russian czar. He witnessed Putin's ongoing attempt to resuscitate the Russian empire.

Gorbachev failed in his dream of creating a Russia that was open and progressive.

But his democratic instincts, his bold reformist agenda, his decency, his belief in a better, fairer, more humane Russia - and his yearning for a more peaceful Europe - was an astonishing achievement in itself.

In these dark days for Moscow, the life of Gorbachev illustrates to those of us in the West that improbable - even incredible - change can happen in Russia, and that we should never turn our back on the country.

Robert Moore was a Moscow correspondent in the final days of the USSR and reported on the fall of Gorbachev in 1991.