Mikhail Gorbachev, who set out to revitalise the Soviet Union but ended up unleashing forces that led to the collapse of communism, the break-up of the state and the end of the Cold War, died on Tuesday after a long illness. He was 91. Though in power less than seven years (1985-1991), 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. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, paid tribute to Gorbachev: Gorbachev visited Switzerland several times during his career. In 1985, for example, a key meeting with US President Ronald Reagan took place in Geneva. The meeting, at which the two superpowers discussed nuclear disarmament, is considered a turning point in the Cold War. Further negotiations took place in the...
