updated2. September 2022, 13:47
RussiaPutin pays his last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev with red roses
He ushered in the end of socialism: Mikhail Gorbachev died this week. However, due to time constraints, Putin will not attend the official funeral.
Vladimir Putin pays his last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev. Russian news agencies published this video.
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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died.
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Vladimir Putin cannot attend the funeral “due to scheduling reasons”.
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He said goodbye to Gorbachev alone with a bouquet of red roses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of late former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday. This was announced by the Kremlin. Putin paid his last respects to Gorbachev on Thursday (today) in a Moscow hospital where his body is laid out, Kremlin spokesman Mikhail Peskov said. He gave reasons for Putin’s absence from the funeral.
Funeral doesn’t fit Putin’s schedule
When asked whether Gorbachev would receive a state funeral, Peskov said the burial would include elements of a state funeral, such as a guard of honor and other formalities. However, he declined to comment on how the celebration differs from a state funeral.
Russian state television showed Putin going to Gorbachev’s open coffin and laying down a bouquet of red roses. He remained silent for a few moments, bowed, touched the coffin and crossed himself (see video). “Unfortunately, the president’s schedule didn’t allow for doing this on Saturday, so he decided to do it today,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. Putin wanted to leave for Kaliningrad on Thursday.
No official state funeral
Gorbachev died on Tuesday evening at the age of 91 after a long illness. He is buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa. The funeral service will take place in the portico of the House of Trade Unions, a building near the Kremlin that has served as a place for state funerals since Soviet times.
Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91.
AFP
Putin has already gone to the Moscow hospital where Gorbachev died and laid flowers on the coffin.
AFP
Had the Kremlin ordered a state funeral for Gorbachev, it would have been inappropriate for Putin to miss the ceremony. A state funeral would also have required the Kremlin to send out invitations to foreign leaders, which Moscow would certainly have been reluctant to do given rising tensions with the West after troops were sent to Ukraine.
President of the Abolition of Socialism
Gorbachev went down in history as the last head of state and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With his reform policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), he ultimately initiated the collapse of the Soviet Union. The change he initiated also contributed to the end of the Cold War. In late 1991, Gorbachev resigned after less than seven years in office.
Over the years, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been showered with honors around the world, but in Russia he is viewed as the gravedigger of the Soviet Union and widely despised.
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(dpa/fos)