World leaders have paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who passed away in Moscow aged 91.
US President Joe Biden hailed him as a "rare leader" who made the world a safer place.
"These were the acts of a rare leader - one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it," President Biden said in a statement, referring to Mr Gorbachev's democratic reforms. "The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people."
"Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of remarkable vision," Mr Biden added.
His death was announced yesterday by Russian news agencies, who said he had died at a central hospital in Moscow "after a serious and long illness".
His funeral is to take place on Saturday, the independent Interfax news agency reported, citing Gorbachev's daughter, Irina.
The ceremony will be held in Moscow's Hall of Columns, followed by a burial at the prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery.
While in power between 1985 and 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev helped to bring US-Soviet relations out of a deep freeze, and was the last surviving Cold War leader.
His life was one of the most influential of his times, and his reforms as Soviet leader transformed his country and allowed Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule.
Other prominent world figures also weighed in on his legacy yesterday.
Russia's leader Vladimir Putin expressed his "deep sympathies" over Mr Gorbachev's death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
Mr Peskov added that President Putin, a former KGB agent who had an ambiguous relationship with Mr Gorbachev, will send a telegram of condolences to the late leader's family and friends this morning.
"History will remember Mikhail Gorbachev as a giant who steered his great nation towards democracy," said former US Secretary of State James Baker III, who negotiated with Mr Gorbachev in the final years of the Cold War.
"He played the critical role in a peaceful conclusion of the Cold War by his decision against using force to hold the empire together ... The free world misses him greatly."
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In a statement on Twitter, the Reagan Institute described Mr Gorbachev as "a man who once was a political adversary of Ronald Reagan's who ended up becoming a friend."
UN chief Antonio Guterres in a statement praised Mr Gorbachev as "a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history" and "did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War".
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Mr Gorbachev as a "trusted and respected leader" who "opened the way for a free Europe".
His "crucial role" in bringing down the Iron Curtain, which symbolised the division of the world into communist and capitalist blocs, and ending the Cold War left a legacy "we will not forget", she wrote on Twitter.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was "deeply saddened" to hear of Mr Gorbachev's passing, describing him as one of the "most significant political figures" of the late 20th Century.
"At a time when the threat to the world of nuclear destruction was very real, he saw the urgent need for rapprochement with the west and for greater openness and reform - glasnost and perestroika - in the then Soviet Union," Mr Martin said in a statement yesterday evening.
"His leadership helped to end the arms race between the east and west, end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the Second World War.
"That contributed directly to the enlargement of the European Union that came to fruition during Ireland's 2004 Presidency of the EU."
Saddened to hear of the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) August 30, 2022
His sense of history, and commitment to openness, reform, and building bridges with the West, changed the world.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he "always admired the courage and integrity" Mr Gorbachev showed to bring the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.
"In a time of Putin's aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all," he said in a Twitter post, referring to Moscow's offensive in its former Soviet neighbour.
