Joe Biden said that Mikhail Gorbachev was a “man of remarkable vision”, remembering the former leader of the Soviet Union who died on Tuesday. Gorbachev was 91.

“After decades of brutal political repression, he embraced democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation” President Joe Biden said in a White House statement.

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He added that “these were the acts of a rare leader – one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”

Other world leaders also remembered Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday. These included French President Emmanuel Macron, outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Boris Johnson said that “in a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”

France’s Macron described Gorbachev as “a man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history.”

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gorbachev “a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War.”

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War but although widely feted abroad, he was a pariah at home. It was unclear how news of his death will be received in Russia, which is currently fighting a war in Ukraine.