Taking to Instagram, Arnold wrote, “There’s an old saying, ‘Never meet your heroes.’ I think that’s some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard. Mikhail Gorbachev was one of my heroes, and it was an honour and a joy to meet him. I was unbelievably lucky to call him a friend. All of us can learn from his fantastic life.”

Arnold stated that Mikhail Gorbachev “will be remembered for all time as a hero who dismantled the communist system despite what it meant for his own power.”

“Imagine rising to the very top of any organization, and then having the wisdom AND the courage to look around and say, ‘This doesn’t work for the people, someone has to fix it. If not me, who? If not now, when?’ Mikhail Gorbachev did exactly that in the old Soviet Union. He will be remembered for all time as a hero who dismantled the communist system despite what it meant for his own power. He belongs to history now, and I know he’s overjoyed to be reunited with his dear Raisa, once again living one of the greatest love stories of all time,” Arnold, the former Governor of California, posted.

He also dropped a picture from his meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, according to the Russian news agency.

Sputnik News Agency citing the hospital stated that he died after a serious and long illness.

“Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,” the agency citing the Central Clinical Hospital said on Tuesday.