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Ex-Soviet leader Gorbachev in hospital for operation

Ex-Soviet leader Gorbachev in hospital for operation | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Feb. 29, 2016 file photo, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is helped by an aide as he leaves after the launch ceremony for a book about him in Moscow, Russia. Gorbachev, 85, was in a Moscow hospital for a scheduled operation on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

MOSCOW – A spokesman for Mikhail Gorbachev says the 85-year-old former Soviet leader is in a hospital for a scheduled operation.

Vladimir Polyakov told The Associated Press that Gorbachev was taken to a hospital in Moscow on Wednesday for a “planned, insignificant surgical intervention.” He declined to give details, but said Gorbachev was eating normally and was expected to be discharged soon.

Russian media reported that Gorbachev was fitted with a pacemaker in the operation.

Gorbachev has suffered repeated health scares in recent years and in September he cancelled a foreign trip on the advice of his doctors.

Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the former president has run a foundation for political, social and economic studies.

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