On Tuesday, Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed, but was unable to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 91.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "his deepest condolences," according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, said Gorbachev, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, had opened the way for a free Europe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said Gorbachev's "tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all."
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, became the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, introducing limited political and economic freedoms that went out of control.
In 1989, when pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in communist Eastern Europe, Gorbachev refrained from using force, unlike his predecessors.
However, in the following two years the Soviet Union quickly fell apart as a result of protests fueled by aspirations for autonomy.
"He gave us all freedom - but we don't know what to do with it."
- Ruslan Grinberg, Liberal Economist
The former Soviet leader will be buried next to his late wife Raisa, who passed away in 1999, at the Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.
