Luanda — João Lourenço has expressed regret for the death of the former head of State of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Mikhail Gorbachev, aged 91, which occurred on Tuesday victim of an illness.

On a note of condolence, President João Lourenço expresses his "heartfelt condolences" to the government of the Russian Federation and to his counterpart Vladimir Putin, on behalf of the Angolan government and on his own behalf.

In the message, the Angolan President expresses solidarity with the bereaved family and friends, to whom he also expresses "deep feelings of consternation".

Mikhail Gorbachev died in Moscow in a hospital unit, where he was hospitalized.

He was born on 2 March 1931 in Stavropol (Russia), the son of a Russian-Ukrainian immigrant family.

Mikhail Gorbachev studied law at Moscow University in 1955 and extended his academic training in 1967, when he also completed a correspondence course in agricultural economics and during that time joined the Communist Party.

In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War, notably in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.