President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday compared Russia’s ‘brutal’ invasion of Ukraine with the ‘courageous’ legacy left by the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Mikhail Gorbachev died in Moscow at the age of 91 on Tuesday following a long illness.
„Mikhail Gorbachev was a leader who wisely understood that ending the Cold War was the right approach. The current war waged by Russia against Ukraine, brutal, unprovoked and unjustified, is in stark contrast to its legacy and courageous vision for a peaceful world,” Iohannis wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Gorbachev, credited with introducing key political and economic reforms to the USSR and helping to end the Cold War, died after a long illness, according to RIA Novosti Tuesday.
Mr Putin and Mr Gorbachev had a strained relationship, with their last meeting reportedly in 2006.
Most recently, Mr Gorbachev was said to have been unhappy with Mr Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, even though he had supported the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Putin said he had a „huge impact on the course of history”,but his spokesman, however, said Mr Gorbachev had been wrong to believe in „eternal romance” with the West.
