The funeral service for former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev began in the Russian capital Moscow on Saturday. President Putin is not there, but former Russian President Medvedev is
A man brings flowers to Gorbachev’s coffin.
(dpa)
Hundreds of people gathered at the House of Trade Unions in Moscow on Saturday morning, within sight of the Kremlin. The body of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev was laid out there. In the morning, Russian state television showed people laying flowers in front of the coffin and pausing for a moment. The Union House was open to the public. A long line formed in front of the building. Next to the coffin were wreaths and a portrait of the ex-head of state. Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91 after a long, serious illness.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev paid his last respects to Gorbachev on Saturday. Unlike incumbent President Vladimir Putin, the current deputy head of the Security Council attended the funeral service in Moscow, according to Russian news agencies. Medvedev laid flowers on the coffin in the House of Trade Unions near the Kremlin. Putin himself said goodbye to Gorbachev’s coffin on Thursday and placed red roses there. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to Putin’s tight schedule for a planned trip to Russia’s far east.
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 is no state funeral – unlike after the death of President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007).
No leading politicians from the West traveled to the funeral. The background are the sanctions because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.