Didn't Gorbachev Die? Time Shift?

[Nanny]

The hoax that Gorbachev had died was in many places, more than got the news that an orchestrated hoax had been performed. I'm suspecting that someone did this one as a warning message to him or someone close to him.
Also, it's weird IMO that someone so famous as him had been successfully so out of the limelight before the hoax, as if word of him was intentionally kept out of all media or something like that.