Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.



Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians.



In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.