Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin: Two World Changers – Russia

The funeral service for Mikhail Gorbachev, the great reformer and architect of the détente policy in the 1980s, on Saturday at the New Maiden Cemetery should only contain “elements of a state funeral” – said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. For the last head of state of the disintegrated Soviet Union, “among other things, there will be a guard of honor and a funeral service will be organized, with the state helping to organize it.” Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend. He was on a business trip in Kaliningrad and his schedule was tight, according to the Kremlin’s brief refusal.