MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has congratulated ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on his 90th birthday on Tuesday, calling him a great statesman.
"Warm wishes to Mikhail Gorbachev on his 90th birthday: a great statesman, Nobel prize winner and patriot, who opened up his country and made a huge contribution to east-west relations and world peace," he tweeted.
Congratulations for the Soviet Union's first president, who signed a declaration announcing its collapse in 1991, began pouring in from around the world on Monday, with the Russian, German and US presidents praising his political feats.
Pavel Palazhchenko, Gorbachev's interpreter from 1985-1991 and the press director at the Gorbachev Foundation, told the Rossiya 1 television channel that former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher used to say that Gorbachev was a man who Western leaders could and should work with.
