There is no doubt that Michael Gorbachev was a politician at a turning point. The upheavals in Russian society were gigantic and perhaps he did not have a happy hand in all the changes. But one has to recognise that he took the most difficult path, regardless of his own career. Gorbachev set the course for peaceful cooperation between “East” and “West”.

Now the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet leader Gorbachev has died in a hospital at the age of 91. Until his death, Gorbachev looked after his own political foundation in Moscow. The organisation is committed to democratic values and Russia’s rapprochement with the West.

We do not know whether Michael Gorbachev was a music lover. But his name has left its mark on two compositions: Glasnost by Dizzy Stratford and Wind of Chang by the Scorpions.