The funeral of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, takes place in Moscow on Saturday, a minimal ceremony that President Vladimir Putin will not attend, a sign of his controversial heritage in Russia. Gorbachev, a great political figure of the 20th century, died Tuesday night at the age of 91 after a “long and serious illness”, according to the hospital where he was treated.
He made history by precipitating, despite himself, the demise of the Soviet empire in 1991, while trying to save it with democratic and economic reforms, thus ending the Cold War.
Buried next to his wife
Hailed in the West as a man of peace, Gorbachev is seen by many in Russia as responsible for the geopolitical degradation of Moscow and the years of political, economic and moral crisis that followed the fall of the USSR. A sign of this disaffection, no day of national mourning has been announced, although “national funeral elements” will be present at the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, in particular an “honor guard,” the Kremlin stressed. And it is that, in a context of high tension between Russia and Western countries due to the conflict in Ukraine, no foreign leader has announced a trip to attend the funeral in Moscow.
The funeral will begin with a farewell ceremony at the House of Trade Unions, a symbolic place in the Russian capital where the remains of various communist dignitaries, such as Joseph Stalin, were exposed in 1953. The ceremony, scheduled for 9 am , local time, will be open to the public, the Gorbachev Foundation announced. The former Soviet leader will later be buried in the Novodevichy cemetery, next to his wife Raisa Gorbatcheva, who died in 1999 and to whom he was very close.
Source: BFM TV
