Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died, according to Russian news reports.
Gorbachev is known for ending the Cold War, but also for failing to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was central to efforts to curb the nuclear arms race.
His death, at the age of 91, has been reported by Russian agencies, citing hospital officials. The Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax agencies cited the Central Clinical Hospital. Mr Gorbachev's office said earlier that he was undergoing treatment at the hospital. You can get more Wales, UK and world news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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As the last leader of the Soviet Union, he waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War,
Though in power less than seven years, Mr Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes, but they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.
His power sapped by an attempted coup against him in August, 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Christmas Day, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.
A quarter of a century after the collapse, Mr Gorbachev told the Associated Press he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.
"The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war," he said.
Many of the changes, including the Soviet break-up, bore no resemblance to the transformation he had envisioned when he became the Soviet leader in March, 1985. By the end of his rule he was powerless to halt the whirlwind he had sown, but he may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.
"I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world," he said shortly after he left office. "I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination," he said.
He and US president Ronald Reagen met in December, 1987 and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, by which the Soviets eliminated about 1,500 medium-range missiles from Europe and the United States removed nearly half that number. Mr Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years collecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world.
But he was widely despised at home. Russians blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union - a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country's troubles.
The official news agency Tass reported that Mr Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery.
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