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Reuters
Reuters
Politics
By Mark Trevelyan

Gorbachev's tragedy - a flawed reformer on an impossible mission

Mikhail Gorbachev Vladimir Putin Russia Boris Yeltsin
FILE PHOTO: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visits the former Berlin Wall border crossing point Checkpoint Charlie, in Berlin November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

For all the adulation he inspired in the West, Mikhail Gorbachev was a tragic figure who failed in the historic mission he had defined for his own country.

The award of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize marked the pinnacle of world acclaim for the role that Gorbachev, then Soviet president, had played in ending the Cold War without bloodshed.

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