The last Soviet leader warns history is repeating itself

The eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union is warning that history is repeating itself, with possible dire consequences, if Russia and the United States can't salvage their rapidly deteriorating relationship.

Mikhail Gorbachev was in office for the fall of the Berlin Wall and was instrumental in ending the Cold War.

He also signed the nuclear missile treaty with then-President Ronald Reagan that Donald Trump pulled out of last August, accusing Moscow of violating it.

Now, in an editorial in a Russian newspaper Gorbachev writes, quote, "There are dangerous trends. They are all in plain sight."

And then he singles out two in particular, what he calls "the disregard for international law and the militarization of world politics".

Regarding that missile pact, known as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, he says it, "was the most important pillar of strategic stability".

And that if Moscow and Washington don't renegotiate it, it will increase "the threat of war."

Mikhail Gorbachev won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending decades of hostility between the two powers.