MOSCOW – The vice president of the Russian Communist Party said on Saturday that late Cuban leader Fidel Castro will go down in history with the great Communist figures.

Ivan Melnikov said the late leader will be always at the same standing of communists such as Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Che Guevara.

Melnikov told Russian media that Fidel’s legacy will always inspire the next generations.

The Russian official indicated that the death of the Cuban leader, whose first visit to the Soviet Union was in 1963, is an irreparable loss, because Fidel was “an idol in the best sense of the word.”

Melnikov added that the Cuban leader is “a symbol of” the 20th century for being an example of stoicism and struggle, which culminated successfully.

Relations between Moscow and Havana went into crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, but a new strategic alliance has been recently established between the Kremlin and Cuba under current Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Castro died late on Friday at the age of 90. The news was announced in an address on state television by the leader’s brother and current president, Raul Castro.