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)

Abandoned cars are seen around a cross in the village of Tbeti near Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Georgia, July 4, 2015. President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty with Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region on March 18 that almost completely integrates it with Russia, alarming Georgia and the West a year after Moscow took over Crimea. Russia won a five-day war with Georgia in 2008 over the fate of South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia. It formally recognizes both regions as independent states and signed a similar treaty with Abkhazia last year. (Photo by Kazbek Basaev/Reuters)

Armed man stand at entrance of the naval headquarters in Sevastopol, March 19, 2014. Around a dozen Ukrainian servicemen, unarmed and in civilian clothes, walked out of the Ukrainian naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Wednesday after it was taken over by pro-Russian forces, a Reuters witness said. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Russia-backed separatists stand at the site of the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane, near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, July 16, 2015. The fighters said they have arrived to protect the media and make sure the MH17 crash site is clear of ammunition and mines. A year since a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky over war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people, there has been little official word of progress in determining what brought down Flight MH17. (Photo by Antoine E. R. Delaunay/AP Photo)

Ukrainian state emblem is seen on a gun's holster as soldiers guard naval base in the village of Novoozernoye, some 91 km west of Crimean capital Simferopol, Ukraine, on Monday, March 3, 2014. Ukraine says Russian forces controlling the strategic region of Crimea are demanding that the crew of two Ukrainian warships in Sevastopol's harbor must surrender. (Photo by Ivan Sekretarev/AP Photo)

Australian cosplay enthusiast Sunni Daniele dressed up as his favourite character from either animation, comic or video game poses for a photograph during Oz Comic Con in Sydney, Australia, 27 September 2015. Cosplay is a combination of the words 'costume' and 'play' where fans dress up as their favourite Japanese comic characters. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts/EPA)

Pro-Russian separatists from the Chechen “Death” battalion take part in a training exercise in the territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, December 8, 2014. Chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), dozens of armed men in camouflage uniforms from Russia's republic of Chechnya train in snow in a camp in the rebel-held east Ukraine. They say their “Death” unit fighting Ukrainian forces has 300 people, mostly former state security troops in the mainly-Muslim region where Moscow waged two wars against Islamic insurgents and which is now run by a Kremlin-backed strongman. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A cosplayer dressed as Batman wearing the Hellbat suit crosses the road during Day 1 of New York Comic Con at Javits Center on October 07, 2021 in New York City. Comic Con has returned this year after being cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)