As the only EU head of government
Orban attends funeral service for Gorbachev
9/3/2022 10:53 am
Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all Western heads of government have canceled their participation in the funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev – apart from Viktor Orban. The Hungarian Prime Minister is traveling to Moscow anyway. But he does not meet with Putin.
The funeral service for former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has begun in the Russian capital Moscow. Hundreds of people gathered at the House of Trade Unions, within sight of the Kremlin. The body of the Nobel Peace Prize winner was laid out there. Many waited in front of the building with flowers in their hands. Among the mourners is Viktor Orban, who has been criticized for his special path towards Russia within the EU.
The Hungarian head of government had announced his trip to Moscow on Twitter. He wanted to “pay his last respects” to Gorbachev, the Foreign Ministry said. The Kremlin immediately stressed that no meeting between Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin was planned. Orban has been accused by his critics of being too close to Moscow. Among other things, Hungary has been the only EU country to increase gas supplies from Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war.
Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91 after a long, serious illness. In the early afternoon, the former head of state and party leader is to be buried next to his wife Raisa in Moscow’s celebrity cemetery at the Novodevichy Convent near the city center. There was no state funeral – unlike after the death of President Boris Yeltsin.
No Western leaders
Germany is represented by the chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Moscow. In addition, no Western leaders traveled to the funeral. The background are the sanctions because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Russia’s incumbent President Vladimir Putin is also absent, and the Kremlin claimed that there were scheduling difficulties in advance. Instead, it was former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who paid his last respects to Gorbachev. The current deputy chief of the Security Council laid flowers on the coffin in the house of the trade unions.
In Russia, Gorbachev is held responsible by many for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it the decline in Russia’s greatness. Gorbachev, who is considered an important pioneer of German unity, died on Tuesday at the age of 91. He led the Soviet Union as its last president from 1985 to 1991. Germany will be represented at the funeral service by the chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Moscow, Géza Andreas von Geyr.