Putin will not attend Gorbachev’s funeral

The Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, has informed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the funeral of the last ruler of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, scheduled for this Saturday due to incompatibility in his schedule.

“Before leaving (for Kaliningrad), the president (Putin) stopped at the Central Clinical Hospital, where he said goodbye to Mikhail Gorbachev and laid flowers,” Peskov explained, as reported by the TASS news agency.

Putin said his last farewell to Gorbachev dressed in black tie and stood near the coffin, where he left a bouquet of roses. Then he looked at the portrait of the former Soviet leader at his feet and made the sign of the cross.

The Kremlin spokesman has dispelled doubts about the scale of the tributes to Gorbachev, assuring that the ceremony will have “elements of a state funeral.” “There will be a guard of honor,” he added, as reported by the Interfax news agency.

Gorbachev, who will have a ceremony organized by the protocol service of the Russian Presidency in the Hall of Columns of the House of Trade Unions, will be buried in the Novodevichi cemetery in Moscow, next to his late wife, as was his wish.

Gorbachev died Tuesday in a Moscow hospital at the age of 91 after a long illness. The architect of the first steps of today’s Russia, his figure is associated with Perestroika, a set of political reforms within the Communist Party of the USSR, which won him more admirers outside than inside.