Mikhail Gorbachev, who steered Soviet breakup, dead at 91

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at 91. He waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War. The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given. Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes. 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.