Mikhail Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91 Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, he weighed the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and set a new course, presiding over the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.
To Keep Putin and His Oligarchs Afloat, It Takes a System Out of a halting attempt at democratization grew a corrupt ecosystem that has proved very difficult for the Russian elite to resist.