Following the death of the last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his deepest condolences. The Interfax news agency quoted Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday night. Peskov announced that Putin would send the family a telegram on Wednesday morning. In initial reactions, German politicians acknowledged Gorbachev’s importance for the Federal Republic and in particular for reunification. The Nobel Peace Prize winner reportedly died at the age of 91.
On the part of the federal government, Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir wrote on Twitter: “Many people have good things to thank for Mikhail Gorbachev, especially we in Germany. His death depresses. Even more so during this time.” Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger also stated that Germany owed a lot to Gorbachev. “He ushered in the end of the Cold War, enabled Germany’s reunification and gave his country democratic momentum.”
“Without Mikhail Gorbachev, the peaceful revolutions in the countries of the Eastern Bloc would have been unthinkable here,” wrote Vice-President of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt on Twitter.
“His words encouraged us, made me strong.” CDU chairman Friedrich Merz explained: “Without Mikhail Gorbachev, German unity in freedom would not have been possible. The CDU mourns the loss of a statesman whom Germany could trust and who trusted us.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev’s historical legacy. “I have always admired the courage and integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end,” Johnson wrote on Twitter late Tuesday night. He also confronted Gorbachev with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “At a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his relentless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example for all of us,” Johnson wrote.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Mikhail Gorbachev was a trusted and respected leader. He played a crucial role in ending the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain. He paved the way for a free Europe… We will not forget that legacy.” United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres wrote that Gorbachev was a unique statesman who changed the course of history. “The world has lost an outstanding leader, a committed multilateralist and a tireless advocate of peace.”
Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 at the age of 54. He set about reforming the system through political and economic freedoms. His “glasnost” policy of transparency not only allowed criticism of the party and the state. She encouraged nationalists who called for independence for the Baltic states, for example. Many Russians did not forgive him for the dislocations unleashed by his reforms. When pro-democracy demonstrations swept the Eastern bloc in 1989, Gorbachev refrained from using violence. On December 25, 1991, he announced his resignation on television. 15 individual states emerged from the Soviet Union.