Vladimir Putin stays away from funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev

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Putin stays away from funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev

The late Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in 2004. Putin will not attend the funeral service for the last Soviet leader.

© Alexander Nemenov / AFP

01.09.2022, 14:05

1 min reading time

It was almost to be expected: Russian President Vladimir Putin will stay away from the funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev. The former head of state of the Soviet Union, who died on Tuesday, is hardly appreciated in Russia.

He was the last head of state in the Soviet Union, but the current leadership in the Kremlin apparently sees little reason to recognize the late Mikhail Gorbachev’s achievements. In any case, Russian President Vladimir Putin will stay away from the funeral service next Saturday.

“We know that the main ceremony and funeral will take place on September 3 – but the president’s schedule does not allow him to be there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. Putin has already gone to the Moscow hospital where Gorbachev died and laid flowers on the coffin. In other words: Putin doesn’t have the time or doesn’t want to take it.

Funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev: “Elements” of a state funeral

However, Peskov emphasized that the ceremony in the Moscow Hall of Columns will have “elements” of a state funeral. This includes an honor guard. The government is also helping to organize funerals and memorial services. After the funeral service, Gorbachev is to be buried in the New Maiden Cemetery for celebrities – next to his wife Raissa, who died in 1999. In view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the mostly cut flight connections, it is unclear whether international guests will come to the funeral in Moscow.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The Soviet ex-president Michael Gorbachev – his life in pictures


Mikhail Gorbachev with his wife Raissa as a young couple

Mikhail Gorbachev with his wife Raissa as a young couple. The later Soviet President was born on March 2, 1931 in Privolnoye (Stavropol region) in the North Caucasus. His father was Russian and his mother Ukrainian. Both lived and worked as farmers. At the age of 19 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

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Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91. He led the Soviet Union as its last president from 1985 to 1991. While he enjoys great respect in the West for his policy of glasnost and perestroika and is considered a pioneer of German unity, Gorbachev is hardly appreciated in Russia. Above all, he is blamed for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

With material from AFP

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