Moscow, Aug. 31 (DP.net).– Mikhail Gorbachev's death is being mourned by the West as the loss of a champion of freedom who helped end the Cold War. He passed away in Moscow on Tuesday at a time when his legacy of reconciliation with the West and domestic reform has been left in tatters in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. However, from Washington to Brussels, Gorbachev was widely acclaimed after the news of his death. His real strength was his charm and decency. He may have changed the world, but he was a real human being first and foremost according to those who knew him personally. Among many others, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher found in Gorbachev someone she could "do business with." Then, through her, U.S. President Ronald Reagan came around to the view that Gorbachev was indeed an authentic partner in the peace and rapprochement process.
Nevertheless, Mikhail Gorbachev was a contradictory figure; his legacy complex. Hailed in the West as a democrat and liberator of his people –which he genuinely was– he increasingly became despised by many within Russia for dismantling the Soviet Union as a Great Power.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, (born March 2, 1931, Privolnoye, Stavropol kray, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet official, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991, and president of the Soviet Union in 1990-91. Once he achieved the highest position in the party in 1985 he embarked on a pell-mell program of reform. It was centered on two ideas, that of "perestroika" –the restructuring of the political and economic system– and "glasnost" –the end of censorship and the introduction of freedom of speech and the press. Ultimately, his efforts to democratize his country's political system and decentralize its economy led to the downfall of the Soviet Union as an imperialist and expansionist power.
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eastern Ukraine has stalled because of strong Ukrainian counter-attacks that have pushed back Russian troops on Kharkiv's Northern and Eastern fronts (see map). However, they were repulsed on the rest of the Eastern front, allowing Russia to consolidate its control over most of Luhansk and Donetsk until their offensive recently stalled northwest of Slovyansk, southeast of Bakhmut, and southeast of Donetsk City.
