RUSSIAN politicians treaded carefully today while reacting to Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, praising him for his role in ending the cold war but deploring his failure to avert the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The stance was reflected by state television broadcasts, which paid tribute to Mr Gorbachev as a historic figure but described his reforms as poorly planned and held him responsible for failing to safeguard the country’s interests in dialogue with the West.

The criticism echoed earlier assessments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has famously lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”