Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he bids the last farewell to his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during the funeral ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 23 September 1999 (reissued 30 August 2022). According to a Moscow Central Clinical Hospital statement, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. As a supporter of the de-Stalinization programs of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the United States and withdrew the Soviet Union from the Soviet-Afghan war. His policies created freedom of speech and press, and decentralized fiscal policy planning and execution to increase efficiency. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, overseeing Russia’s transition from one party rule to fragile democracy. (Photo by Sergey Chirikov/EPA/EFE)

Customers ride escalators at a shopping mall in central Moscow, Russia on March 2, 2019. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Russian soldiers from 34th motorized infantry mountain brigade, 58th Army, prepare to evacuate a fellow soldier acting as an injured person during a drill at the Darial range outside Russia's city of Vladikavkaz, July 28, 2010. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)

The head of a mountain ram is attached to a wooden column at the site used for shamans' rituals in the Aldyn Bulak area on the bank of the Yenisei River during sunset outside the village of Elegest, Tuva region, Southern Siberia, Russia, October 7, 2015. The region is inhabited by Tuvans, historically cattle-herding nomads, who nowadays practise two main confessions – Buddhism and Shamanism. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Customers clink their cups as they sit in Crazy Toilet Cafe in central Moscow, Russia October 30, 2015. A new Moscow cafe, opened on Friday, serves food to its guests with crockery designed to look like small baths and urinals, in toilet-themed interior with seats resembling toilets, local media reported. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Russian communists lay flowers at Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's tomb on Red Square next to the Kremlin wall in Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2015. Russian communists are marking the 136th anniversary of Josef Stalin's birthday. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA)

U.S. players push head coach Adam Krikorian into the pool after they defeated the Netherlands in their women's water polo gold medal match during the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia, August 7, 2015. (Photo by Michael Dalder/Reuters)

A Russian Soyuz MS space capsule stands on the ground shortly after its landing with International Space Station (ISS) crew members Kate Rubins of the U.S., Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia and Takuya Onishi of Japan, as a rescue helicopter lands nearby, outside the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, October 30, 2016. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/Reuters)