Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War and was the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 91.

“Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness”, - the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said.

Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.

The dissolution of the Soviet bloc - marked by Gorbachev’s resignation that year - ended the Cold War and years of confrontation between East and West, freed Eastern European nations from Soviet domination, and established the modern Russian state.