Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral on Saturday of the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at the age of 91, and whose legacy is controversial and a source of resentment in Russia. “We know that the main ceremony will be on September 3, as well as the funeral, but the president’s schedule will not allow him to be there,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry told reporters. Peskov.
According to images broadcast on television, Vladimir Putin already went to the Central Clinical Hospital (TSKB) in Moscow on Thursday, where Mikhail Gorbachev died, to pay tribute to him.
Putin gathers near Gorbachev’s coffin
The Russian president laid a bouquet of red roses near the open coffin of the ultimate leader of the USSR. He paused for a few seconds, looking at the body, then he bowed his head in deference. He then touched the coffin, made the sign of the cross with his hand and walked away. He was expected on Thursday for an official visit to the Kaliningrad enclave.
Mikhail Gorbachev died on Tuesday evening following a “long and serious illness”. A great political figure of the 20th century, he marked history by precipitating, in spite of himself, the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991, when he was trying to save it with democratic and economic reforms. The dislocation of the USSR, described by Vladimir Putin as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”, marked the end of the Cold War.
Low popularity in the country
The discreet tributes paid in Russia to Mikhail Gorbachev illustrate his low popularity in the countries. Conversely, many Western leaders have welcomed his commitment to peace and democracy, in the midst of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Despite his major free speech reforms, he is held responsible by many Russians for the collapse of a superpower and the years of economic, social and moral crisis that followed.
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, great rival of Gorbachev, in power during the tumultuous 1990s, and who had appointed Vladimir Putin as successor in 1999, had the right to a state funeral on his death in 2007. Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev attended his funeral and a day of national mourning was declared. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov limited himself to saying that “national funeral elements” would be present at Mikhail Gorbachev’s burial, including an “honor guard”.