Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the former Soviet Union, has died. He was 91 years old.
Gorbachev, who was the final president of the Soviet Union before it dissolved, died in Moscow, the Central Clinical Hospital said, according to state-owned Russian news agency TASS and CNN.
"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a severe and prolonged illness," the hospital said.
Gorbachev became the secretary general of the Communist Party's Central Committee in 1985 and was elected as president of the Soviet Union in March 1990 and resigned on December 25, 1991, before it dissolved.
His rule was marked by the concepts of perestroika and glasnost, meaning reform and openness.
