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Putin congratulates Gorbachev on 86th birthday
March 2, 2017, 10:48 am

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in an archive photo [PPIO]


Russia’s Kremlin website on Thursday published a message of congratulations from President Vladimir Putin to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the occasion of his 86th birthday.

“For many years, you have been engaged in important social activities and research, taking part in expert discussions on ways to develop the global community and boost international cooperation. Your vast knowledge as well as your extensive professional and personal experience are fully applicable for this significant effort,” Putin said in a report carried by the TASS news agency.

Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, presided over the waning days of the Soviet Union just before it broke apart, marking an end to Communism and the Iron Curtain.

It was under his rule that glasnost or openness was introduced as part of his bid to democratize the Soviet Union – a movement that came to be called perestroika.

Gorbachev is perhaps more widely known in the West for his 1986 meeting with the late US President Ronald Reagan at the Rekjavik Summit to reduce ballistic missile proliferation. Their meeting lead to the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 which in earnest ushered in warmer relations between the former Cold War adversaries.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies