Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral, Kremlin says

Vladimir Putin is to skip the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Kremlin has said.

The Russian president’s spokesperson said he would be unable to attend this coming Saturday’s service due to scheduling constraints and had instead paid his respects on Thursday by laying flowers at Mr Gorbachev’s coffin at the Moscow hospital where his body is being kept.

“Regrettably, the president’s working schedule wouldn’t allow him to do that on Saturday, so he decided to do that today,” Dmitry Peskov said.

Mr Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday, will be buried at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife Raisa after a farewell ceremony to be held at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, a historic mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since Soviet times.

Dozens of high-ranking politicians, poets, royals and intellectuals have been buried at the cemetery since it was established in the 16th century, among them Boris Yeltsin, who was Russia’s first president and Mr Gorbachev’s political rival. But Nikita Khrushchev is the only other Soviet leader buried there, with most others having been laid to rest beside the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

Asked if Mr Gorbachev would be given a state funeral, Mr Peskov said the funeral would have “elements” of a state funeral, such as honorary guards, and the government would help to organise them.

Mr Putin’s decision to pay a private visit to the hospital while staying away from Saturday’s public farewell ceremony, combined with uncertainty surrounding the funeral’s status, reflect the Kremlin’s divided thinking on the legacy of Mr Gorbachev.

The late leader has been lauded in the West for putting an end to the Cold War but is reviled by many Russians for actions that led to the 1991 Soviet collapse and plunged millions into poverty.

A 2017 poll found that just 15 per cent of Russians held a favourable opinion of the last Soviet leader. While many in the West have celebrated his life’s achievements after the news of his passing, reaction in Russia has been more muted.

Vladimir Putin paid tribute to Gorbachev after his death, saying he had a “huge impact on the course of world history”. The last leader of the Soviet Union was someone who found his “own solutions to urgent problems”, Mr Putin said.

Mr Putin said Mr Gorbachev “deeply understood that reforms were necessary” and strove to offer his own solutions to the problems faced by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. He also credited the “great humanitarian, charitable and education activities” carried out by Gorbachev.

Expressing his condolences to his family, the Russian president said in a statement: “He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, and large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges.”

The Kremlin’s ambivalent view of Mr Gorbachev was mirrored by state television broadcasts, which paid tribute to the former leader as a historic figure but described his reforms as poorly planned and held him responsible for failing to safeguard the country’s interests in dialogue with the West.

Mr Gorbachev’s passing was the first item on Russia’s flagship Channel One news bulletin, where a five-minute retrospective emphasised his common touch and desire to improve the Soviet economy. But it also suggested that he had lacked decisiveness and had trusted the United States too much.