MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union loomed over the world like an immortal colossus.

“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart,” he said. Five years after the overthrow of Russia's czarist government, four of the socialist republics that had formed in the aftermath signed a treaty on Dec. 30, 1922 to create the USSR: Ukraine; Byelorussia; Transcaucasia, which spread over Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan; and Russia, including the old empire's holdings in Central Asia. The USSR, which later expanded to include Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, left the republics with their own governments and national languages, but all subordinate to Moscow.

One would have to go back hundreds of years to find a monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II.

A collection from the estate of General Colin Powell of nearly 400 items stretching from the momentous to the mundane is currently up for auction.

The end of the Cold War seemed to have made Sovietology obsolete. Putin’s hot wars have changed that.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin has become the face of Russia’s new military strategy in Ukraine, which includes unleashing a barrage of strikes against the country's infrastructure.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants to have a new “grand bargain” between Russia and the West, Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told CNN on Oct. 8.

There are moments in history that appear as critical to the world as they are terrifying.

Missouri’s senior senator continues to go along with a double standard on classified documents. | Opinion

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, ended his tenure as America’s top diplomat in Moscow on Sunday after nearly three years, spanning the Trump and Biden administrations, and will retire from a lengthy career in government service.

Residents of the far-away Russian village where he spent his youth have lauded Mikhail Gorbachev too as Moscow paid last respects to him.

The Kremlin said the president's busy schedule would prevent him from attending the funeral.

The Kremlin's refusal to formally declare a state funeral reflects its uneasiness about the legacy of Gorbachev.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who launched dramatic reforms that helped end the Cold War and precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union, is set to be buried in a relatively low-key ceremony snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has been buried in Moscow after a ceremony attended by thousands of mourners but snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russians who came for a last look at former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday mourned both the man and his policies that gave them hope. President Vladimir Putin claimed to be too busy to attend. Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at age 91, launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War.

Mikhail Gorbachev has been buried at a Moscow cemetery where he's once again next to his wife Raisa.

Mikhail Gorbachev was laid to rest Saturday in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, with whom he shared the world stage in a visibly close and loving marriage that was unprecedented for a Soviet leader. Gorbachev's very public devotion to his family broke the stuffy mold of previous Soviet leaders, just as his openness to political reform did. Co-owned by Gorbachev, it was forced to shut under official pressure after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The first and last Soviet president presided over the dismantling of the Soviet Union but saw his legacy decimated by Vladimir Putin's authoritarianism.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is set to be buried in a ceremony falling short of a state funeral that will not be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin or top international leaders

At a prime-time speech in Philadelphia on Thursday, President Joe Biden said Trump and MAGA supporters are a threat to American democracy.

When Mikhail Gorbachev died at age 91, Associated Press journalists began sharing their “Gorby” stories from the collapse of the Soviet Union and its aftermath.

Gorbachev is often praised in the West for his role in bringing about a peaceful end to the Cold War, but he has a complicated legacy in Russia.

Mikhail Gorbachev was enduringly popular in Germany for enabling the country’s reunification after four decades of post-World War II division — and setting the scene for the peaceful collapse of communism that made it possible

Mikhail Gorbachev was enduringly popular in Germany for enabling the country’s reunification after four decades of post-World War II division — and setting the scene for the peaceful collapse of communism that made it possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev but will not attend the weekend funeral, a decision reflecting the Kremlin’s ambivalence about Gorbachev’s legacy.

The funeral and burial plans for Mikhail Gorbachev will sum up the crosscurrents of his legacy.

The funeral and burial plans for Mikhail Gorbachev sum up the crosscurrents of his legacy — final farewells are to be said in the same place where his rigid Soviet predecessors also lay, but he will be buried near men who broke the Soviet mold. Gorbachev, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who died Tuesday, is to lie in state on Saturday in Moscow's House of Unions. The building located between the Bolshoi Theater and the Duma, the lower house of parliament, for decades held the bodies of deceased Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

The last leader of the U.S.S.R. attempted to modernize and reform his country, even as he failed to imagine it as anything but an empire.

News of Mikhail Gorbachev's death resurfaced old Pizza Hut and Louis Vuitton ads in which the Soviet Union's final leader starred, and have since become viral memes.

The Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States Before Mikhail Gorbachev came along.

The final leader of the Soviet Union failed at most of his ambitions. He also ended the Cold War.

Call it a slice of life.

Almost nobody has ever had such a profound impact on an era, while understanding so little about it.

The evil empire he inherited crumbled but a new one has been allowed to rise in its place.

The Kremlin treaded carefully Wednesday reacting to Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, praising his prominent role in reshaping 20th-century history, but noting his “romantic” view of the West.

He was trying to rescue, rather than to destroy, the U.S.S.R. and Soviet communism.

The last Soviet leader wanted democracy, openness and a thriving economy. Putin has undone all three.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union and is for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule.

Before Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union, died Tuesday at the age of 91.

Russian media reported his death. Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader and played a central role in ending the Cold War.

Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91, Russian media reported Thursday.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who served as the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, has died.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, has died at 91, Russian media reported Tuesday.

Russian news agencies are reporting that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at 91.

The United Nations chief is warning that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”.

New tensions between Moscow and the West are rising after Lithuania decided to halt the transport of some goods through its territory to the Russian region of Kaliningrad as part of European Union sanctions on the Kremlin.

He was a harsh critic of Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian who succeeded him as the new nation’s leader in 1994.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has reawakened fears about the bomb—and endangered the principle of deterrence.

The missile cruiser Moskva, named in honor of the Russian capital, was launched during the Cold War, saw service during conflicts in Georgia, Syria and Ukraine, and helped conduct peacetime scientific research with the United States.

China has called reports of civilian killings in Ukraine disturbing and urged further investigation, even while declining to blame Russia.

Russia’s leading independent newspaper has suspended operations under pressure from the authorities.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation 30 years ago was a momentous event that ended an era by drawing a line under the USSR’s existence.

It was a landmark event that ended an era: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's resignation 30 years ago finalized the USSR’s demise. The AP's Moscow photo chief at the time, Liu Heung Shing, was the only foreign photographer who captured the pivotal moment on Dec. 25, 1991. In the fall of 1991, the Soviet Union was speeding up quickly to its dissolution.

People strolling across Moscow’s snowy Red Square on the evening of Dec. 25, 1991 witnessed one of the 20th century’s most pivotal moments.

People strolling across Moscow's snowy Red Square on the evening of Dec. 25, 1991 were surprised to witness one of the 20th century’s most pivotal moments — the Soviet red flag over the Kremlin pulled down and replaced with the Russian Federation's tricolor. Just minutes earlier, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation in a live televised address to the nation, concluding 74 years of Soviet history. In his memoirs, Gorbachev, now 90, bitterly lamented his failure to prevent the USSR's demise, an event that upset the world's balance of power and sowed the seeds of an ongoing tug-of-war between Russia and neighboring Ukraine.

To understand the friction between Russia and Ukraine, it's important to go back to 1991. Exactly 30 years ago this weekend, the Soviet Union formally dissolved and broke up into 15 separate nations.

The last Soviet president, who's now 90, said the West then "decided to build a new empire. Hence the idea of NATO expansion."

Russian President Vladimir Putin once floated the prospect of his country joining NATO.

A Russian military buildup has raised fears in Ukraine and the West that Moscow could invade its neighbor.

Former Senator Bob Dole is lying in state at the U.S. Capitol, where the president and others gathered to honor an “American giant” who served the country in war and in politics with pragmatism, wit and a bygone era's sense of common civility. (Dec. 9)

More than 50 historically Black college and university leaders are asking the Senate to pass President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan, saying the funds help Black students achieve the American dream. (Dec. 9)

A historic tribute in Washington, D.C., on Thursday will honor the late politician just as a controversy arises over one of the people planning his funeral. ABC News’ Em Nguyen has the details.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops at Ukraine’s border threaten to escalate a long-running conflict. President Biden warned Russian President Putin of taking 'strong measures' over invasion fears.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Republican caucus in Congress accept the harassment of members of Congress, particularly women of color. She made the remarks in a press conference announcing a resolution to strip Rep. Lauren Boebert of her committee assignments after the Colorado Republican made anti-Muslim comments against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Less than a year after losing the presidency, Donald Trump has set out to reshape the GOP in his image across the nation's top political battlegrounds, sparking bitter primary battles that will force candidates and voters to decide how much to embrace Trump and his grievances. But nowhere is his quest more consequential than Georgia.

When the leaders of the Soviet Union’s three Slavic republics met at a secluded hunting lodge near the Polish border on Dec. 8, 1991, they delivered a death blow to the USSR.

With a stroke of their pens, they delivered a death blow to the USSR, triggering shockwaves that are still reverberating three decades later in the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The agreement they signed signed at the dacha in Viskuli, in the Belavezha forest near the border with Poland, declared that “the USSR ceases to exist as a subject of international law and as a geopolitical reality.” Two weeks later, eight other Soviet republics joined the alliance, effectively terminating the authority of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who stepped down on Dec. 25, 1991, with the hammer and sickle flag lowered over the Kremlin.

The Nobel Peace Prize sometimes recognizes groundbreaking efforts to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts.

Journalists, human rights groups and other activists enthusiastically welcomed the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists at a time when media groups around the world face new pressures and crackdowns from the authorities.

Ukraine’s president has urged closer ties between the ex-Soviet nation and NATO and the European Union in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

On Aug. 19, 1991, a group of top Communist Party hard-liners declared they had removed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country.

The world held its breath 30 years ago when a group of top Communist officials ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and flooded Moscow with tanks.

Gorbachev has acknowledged Moscow's own decade-long campaign in Afghanistan was a failed deployment that hindered the country in its final years.

Russian rock musician, poet and actor Pyotr Mamonov has died at the age of 70.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and called him an astute negotiator.

With Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin heading to town, Geneva is returning to the international spotlight as a leading hub for diplomacy and multilateralism, things that were largely shunned by the Trump administration.

If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter.

Top diplomats from the United States and Russia have sparred firmly but politely in Iceland in their first face-to-face encounter.

(AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)WASHINGTON – Time was running out when Secretary of State George P. Shultz returned home in April 1988 after flying 16,000 miles in a failed mission to persuade Arabs and Israelis to negotiate their differences. AdA lifelong Republican, Shultz negotiated the first-ever treaty with the Soviet Union to reduce the size of their ground-based nuclear arsenals. The president would not yield, and Reagan and Shultz returned to the United States disappointed but determined to pursue an accord. Although Shultz objected, Reagan went ahead with the deal and millions of dollars from Iran went to right-wing Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. But only a few years later, Reagan and Shultz, considered Israel’s best friends, had opened the door to Palestinian legitimacy and possibly a Palestinian state on land held by Israel.

King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, which gave the show an air of gravitas. “Do you know who I am?”“Always loved Larry King and will miss him,” Seinfeld tweeted Saturday. Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program.

Sheehy, widow of New York magazine founder Clay Felker, died Monday of complications from pneumonia in Southampton, New York, according to her daughter, Maura Sheehy. She would continue with The Silent Passage (menopause), New Passages (life after 50), Understanding Mens Passages (a midlife resource for men) and Passages in Caregiving (caring for family members). Sheehy told her own story in the 2014 memoir Daring: My Passages.When not writing books, Sheehy was a popular lecturer and television commentator and a well-traveled journalist specializing in psychological portraits of public figures. For New York magazine, Vanity Fair and other publications, she interviewed everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Margaret Thatcher to Mikhail Gorbachev. (Sheehy and Felker later adopted a girl, Momh).

The very nature of a protest suggests a fervent desire for change, the need to right a perceived historic injustice. Confronting tyranny can also backfire, the result a more dictatorial leader or a ruinous civil war. Here's a look at some of the key protests of recent decades and what they achieved or failed. Syria exploded quickly from an uprising against the Assad dynasty to ruinous civil war which still continues with more than half million dead and millions displaced. In neighboring Lebanon and in Iraq, civil protests erupted last October against ruling elites.

The U.S. has formally withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a missile reduction agreement signed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. In a statement, Pompeo said, "Russia is solely responsible for the treaty's demise. The United States will not remain party to a treaty that is deliberately violated by Russia." The US and NATO agree: Russia violated the INF, and leaving the agreement is in the best interests of our collective security. He took to Twitter, as well:On Feb 2nd, 2019 the U.S. gave Russia six months to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.