Russians bid farewell to Gorbachev, but without Putin

GBNEWS24DESK//

Russians are today (Sept 1) paying their final respects to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, in a ceremony held in Moscow without much fanfare and with President Vladimir Putin notably absent, report AFP and Reuters.

Hundreds of mourners lined up to quietly file past Gorbachev’s open casket as it was flanked by honour guards under the Russian flag in Moscow’s historic Hall of Columns.

The hall has long been used for the funerals of high officials in Russia and it was where the body of Joseph Stalin first lay in state during four days of national mourning after his death in 1953.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who was much admired in the West and who lived long enough to see all the reforms he had championed undone, will be buried today in a public send-off but without state honours.

Muscovites are able to view the coffin of Mr Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday aged 91, in the imposing Hall of Columns, within sight of the Kremlin, where previous Soviet leaders have been mourned.

Ahead of his funeral, pallbearers hoisted Mr Gorbachev’s wooden coffin, covered in a tricolour Russian flag, into the venue.

But it was little surprise that Mr Putin, a long-time KGB intelligence officer who has called the Soviet Union’s collapse a “geopolitical catastrophe”, denied Mr Gorbachev full state honours and said his schedule did not allow him to attend the funeral.