Earlier this summer, rumors of a sharp deterioration in the health of the former Soviet leader emerged, which, however, were dispelled by representatives of the Gorbachev Foundation. It was also reported that in October 2021 he was quarantined in hospital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Gorbachev was the first and last president of the USSR and de facto the last head of the state from 1985 to the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. He was known for his large-scale attempt to reform the country, called "perestroika", and for defusing international tensions with the West in the last stage of the Cold War.
The period of his leadership was marked by some of the most important events in the geopolitical sense: the end of the Cold War, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, and the collapse of the state itself.
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