Putin Responds to Gorbachev's Death as Russians Divided Over His Legacy

Russian politicians and media figures have reacted to the death of the final Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in messages that expressed his complex legacy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement that Vladimir Putin "expresses deep condolences over the death of Mikhail Gorbachev" and that he would send a telegram to the friends and family of the statesman, who died aged 91 on Tuesday after a long illness.

Peskov later said that a decision had not yet been made if he would receive a state funeral, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky described Gorbachev as the "brightest" politician of his time and expressed "sincere condolences" to his family.

However, in a post on his Telegram social media channel, Slutsky said that "for all those born in the Soviet Union, he remains a complex and controversial historical figure."

He wrote that it was a "pity" that the processes most associated with Gorbachev such as "perestroika" in the final days of the Soviet Union "played into the hands of those who sought to erase the USSR from the political map of the world."

"Perestroika" or "restructuring" and "glasnost," which means "openness," were two policies associated with Gorbachev as he tried to reform the Soviet Union during a tenure marked by increased diplomacy with the West.

Having led the Soviet Union as the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from March 1985 until August 1991, Gorbachev became the first and only Soviet president in March 1990 until the union's dissolution in December 1991.

While lauded in the West for his role in ending the Cold War, Gorbachev was a divisive figure domestically, blamed in some quarters for policies that caused the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which was followed by economic chaos and a loss of Moscow's standing in the world.

Konstanin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, described Gorbachev's death as a "tragedy for the country and for all of us whose lives he managed to change for the better…despite the collapse of the USSR and huge trials for its former citizens."

Kosachev wrote on Telegram that the achievements of the Soviet Union were "due to the exploits of the people, and not to the system of Soviet power."

"It was Gorbachev who broke the system, which was initially false and which eventually degenerated into an anti-people one," he said.

"Gorbachev created a path that our people could not have otherwise traveled over the last three-and-a-half decades, a difficult one but, unlike the previous 70 years, finally in the right direction."

Kosachev added: "Gorbachev deserves respect, and he deserves to be remembered."

Vladimir Vorsobin, a columnist for the mass circulation tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote that "Gorbachev did everything he had to" and that "without him, the world would be different now."

"Of course, Gorbachev felt guilty for the collapse of the USSR. Of course, he did not want to become the last general secretary of a great country," Vorsobin wrote and this was "on his conscience. "

However, he said that without the last Soviet leader, "probably, for another couple of decades, the socialist bloc would have rotted," and Gorbachev, "simply drew a line" which was "enough to end the torment."

Former Russian finance minister, and current chairman of the accounts chamber, Alexei Kudrin, described Gorbachev, as a "historical, large-scale personality" who left a "bright memory."

Margarita Simonyan, who heads state-run media organization RT and is a regular feature on Kremlin propaganda TV shows backing the invasion of Ukraine, was more succinct in her appraisal of the passing of Gorbachev.

"Gorbachev is dead. Time to collect what is scattered," she tweeted.