Marcos mourns death of last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Wednesday mourned the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, who once led the former Soviet Union.

"I share the grief of other world leaders over the death of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the last leader of the former Soviet Union," Marcos said in a statement.

"The Filipino people condole with the Russian people for the loss of a great leader in the person of Mikhail Gorbachev, and we pray he rests in peace."

Marcos said Gorbachev was credited with "glasnost," referring to political reforms, and "perestroika," for economic restructuring.

"Mr. Gorbachev is best remembered for the disbandment of his own political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which has the largest membership in the world," the President said.

"That the world is much safer now and there is greater freedom for millions of people in the former communist countries in Eastern Europe is in part because of Mr. Gorbachev’s political and economic reforms," he added.

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 after a prolonged illness, reports said.

When he became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, he set out political and economic freedoms, but his reforms spun out of control.

His policy of "glasnost" (free speech) allowed previously unthinkable criticism of the party and the state, but also emboldened nationalists who began to press for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere.

Many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed, considering the subsequent plunge in their living standards too high a price to pay for democracy.

He also forged arms reduction deals with the United States and partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War Two and bring about the reunification of Germany. —with Reuters/VBL, GMA News