Russian President Vladimir Putin has viewed the body of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev but has ruled out attending his funeral, which will be held near the Kremlin.
Mr Putin’s decision partly reflects official ambivalence towards Gorbachev, a controversial figure in Russia due to his role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
A Kremlin spokesman also confirmed that Gorbachev will not have a full state funeral — an event that would require invitations to be sent to world leaders — but the government is helping to organise it.
Russian state television showed Mr Putin visiting the Moscow hospital where Gorbachev’s body is being kept before Saturday’s funeral and placing a bouquet of red roses next to the open casket. He stood in silence for a few moments, bowed his head, touched the coffin, crossed himself and walked away.
“Regrettably, the president’s working schedule wouldn’t allow him to do that on Saturday, so he decided to do that today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
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General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (right) shaking hands with Syrian President Hafez Al Assad in Moscow on June 19, 1985. AFP -
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (right) and his Vice President Tarek Aziz in Moscow with Mr Gorbachev (left) and his Foreign Minister Edward Shevardnadze during their visit to Soviet Union in 1985. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev with Yasser Arafat, President of Palestine Liberation Organisation, in East Berlin on April 17, 1986 during the 11th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany. AFP -
Delegates attend the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. The 1991 conference for the Middle East was the first time Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians all came together for negotiations. Pictured from left are Soviet President Mr Gorbachev, Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, US President George Bush, US Secretary of State James Baker, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, Palestinian delegate Abdel Haidar Shafi, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber. Getty Images -
Jordan's Queen Noor greets Mr Gorbachev in Amman in 1998. Mr Gorbachev is in Jordan to give a lecture on the UN Leadership Programme. AFP -
World leaders and Nobel laureates participate in a conference, organised by the Peres Centre for Peace to add impetus to the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, join hands in January 1999 at the end of the two-day meeting in Ramallah. Pictured from left are Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Costa Rican president Oscar Sanchez, Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, ex-Soviet leader Mr Gorbachev and former South African president FW de Klerk. AFP -
Former Soviet president Mr Gorbachev (right) is greeted by former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres after the latter's speech to the second annual meeting of the board of the Peres Centre for Peace in Tel Aviv in January 1999. AFP -
Former Soviet president Mr Gorbachev shakes hands with UN official and former Egyptian minister Mervat Tallawy at the UN head office in Beirut in April 2003. Mr Gorbachev called on the US and Britain to end the "bloodbath" in Iraq and allow the UN to resolve the crisis. AFP -
Former Russian Mr Gorbachev (left) meets Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut in 2003. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev (centre) speaks with Iraqi boys Ali Ismael Abbas (right) and his friend Ahmed (left) during an awards ceremony where Dr Ahmed Al Shatti, representing Iraqi and Kuwaiti doctors, was honoured with the "Men of the year award" for work during the Iraq war at the World Awards gala in Hamburg on October 22, 2003. Reuters -
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman (left) with Mr Gorbachev at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 1, 2010. Gorbachev is on a private visit to Lebanon. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev speaks to journalists at the Middle East and North Africa Cristal Festival at a hotel in Faraya, north-east of Beirut, on February 2, 2010. AFP -
Mr Gorbachev speaks during the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2014) in Sharjah on February 23, 2014. The event, gathering international professionals from government, private and media sectors, has the theme "Different Roles...Mutual Interest. AFP
Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, after a farewell ceremony at Pillar Hall in the House of the Unions, a mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since the Soviet era.
Asked if there would be a state funeral, Mr Peskov said the funeral will have “elements” of state funeral, such as honour guards, and the government will help to organise it. He did not elaborate on how the ceremony would differ from a full-fledged state funeral.
The late leader was lauded in the West for helping to bring an end to the Cold War but is reviled by many at home for actions that led to the 1991 Soviet collapse, which plunged millions into poverty.
Had the Kremlin declared a state funeral, it would have made it harder for Mr Putin to avoid it. A state funeral would also oblige the Kremlin to send invitations to foreign leaders, including some of those angry at Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Mr Putin has previously blamed Gorbachev for failing to secure written commitments from the West that would rule out Nato’s expansion eastward.
In Wednesday’s telegram of condolences released by the Kremlin, Mr Putin praised Gorbachev as a man who left “an enormous impact on the course of world history”.
“He led the country during difficult and dramatic changes, amid large-scale foreign policy, economic and society challenges,” Mr Putin said. “He deeply realised that reforms were necessary and tried to offer his solutions for the acute problems.”
