Very few Australians ever got as close to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, as Peter Tesch.
Mr Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday, was not an easy person to meet, let alone develop a personal relationship with.
"I think he was very conscious that people would seek to use that proximity for perhaps their own ends," Mr Tesch, who served as Australia's main man in Moscow between 2016 and 2019, said.
