Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Russian and former Soviet politician, considered as the founder of Green Cross International. Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky District, Stavropol Territory, in the south of the Russian republic into a peasant family. He worked in agriculture during his teenage years and went on study law and agricultural economics.
In 1985 Gorbachev was elected the new leader of the Soviet Union. In 1990, the Nobel Committee gave President Gorbachev the main credit for this by awarding him the Peace Prize.
In 1993, Green Cross International was founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, building upon the work started by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 6 June 1992, the Rio Earth Summit delegates asked Gorbachev to establish Green Cross International, and around the same time Swiss National Council MP Roland Wiederkehr founded “World Green Cross”, with similar aims. The two organizations merged in 1993, becoming Green Cross International, which was formally launched in Kyoto, Japan, on 18 April 1993. In 1994, the first Green Cross National Organizations (GCNOs) joined GCI in The Hague, including Japan, The Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, and the United States.
Today there are member organizations in 30 countries. Its primary mission is to “respond to the combined challenges of security, poverty and environmental degradation to ensure a sustainable and secure future”.