Russian President Vladimir Putin will miss the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, denied people who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Empire, a full state award given to Boris Yeltsin.
Gorbachev, idolized in the West for allowing Eastern Europe to escape the Soviet communist control but not loved at home because of the chaos that the reforms of the “Perestroika” released, will be buried on Saturday after the Public Ceremony at the Hall of Colom Moscow.
Grand Hall, who is seen by Kremlin, hosted the funeral of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Gorbachev will be given a military honorary guard – but his funeral will not be a country.
Government television on Thursday showed Putin seriously – really placed red roses next to Gorbachev’s coffin – left open like traditional in Russia – at the Moscow Center Clinical Hospital, where he died on Tuesday at the age of 91 years.
Putin made a cross sign by Russian orthodox before touching the edge of the coffin briefly.
“Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do this on September 3, so he decided to do it today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said the Gorbachev ceremony would have “elements” of the state funeral, and that the state helped regulate it.
However, it would be very contrasting with Yeltsin’s funeral, which played an important role in putting aside Gorbachev when the Soviet Union was a mess and chose Putin, a KGB intelligence officer, as the most suitable man to replace him.
When Yeltsin died in 2007, Putin declared a national mourning day and, together with world leaders, attended the Grand State funeral at the Cathedral of Kristus Moscow, Savior.
Russian intervention in Ukraine seems to be aimed at reversing at least part of the collapse of the Soviet Union which failed to be prevented by Gorbachev in 1991.
Gorbachev’s decision to let the Soviet Communist Block countries after their own way, and East and West Germany to reunite, helping trigger nationalist movements in the 15 helpless Soviet Republics to be defeated.
Five years after taking over power in 2000, Putin mentioned the separation of the Soviet Union “The biggest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century”.
It takes Putin more than 15 hours after Gorbachev’s death to publish a controlled condolence message that says Gorbachev has “a big impact on the course of world history” and “very understanding that reforms are needed” to overcome the problem of Soviet Soviet Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Gorbachev Foundation said the funeral would start at 12 noon (0900 GMT), not 10 in the morning (0700 GMT) as announced earlier.
