Moscow - Russia - 09/05/2017 - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev attends the parade marking the World War II anniversary in Moscow.
Aug 30 (Reuters) - Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said.
"Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted disease," said Russia's Central Clinical Hospital.
"Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends," he said.
Putin said in 2018 he would reverse the Soviet Union's disintegration if he could, news agencies reported.
After decades of Cold War tension and confrontation, Gorbachev brought the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War Two.
Gorbachev - who was briefly deposed in an August 1991 coup by party hardliners - struggled vainly to prevent that collapse. »