UpdateThe funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev (91), will be held privately today. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and European political leaders are absent. Neither London, Paris, nor Berlin will send government politicians to attend the state funeral, despite their appreciation for the so-called “father of glasnost and perestroika”. They do not sign because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov spoke of “elements of a state funeral”. For example, there will be a guard of honor. But Gorbachev is not paid the same honor as Boris Yeltsin, who died in 2007. The funeral will take place in a limited circle.
Gorbachev’s body is displayed in the House of Trade Unions between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Traditionally, Soviet leaders are laid in state there after their death, so that all mourners can say goodbye. Gorbachev is then interred at the Novodevichy Cemetery, where numerous celebrities are buried. He will lie next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
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It will mainly be foreign ambassadors and diplomats who will pay one last tribute to Gorbachev.
Without European leaders
In light of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the West has imposed sanctions against Russia. Air traffic from Europe to Russia has been suspended, among other things. The parties have therefore closed their airspace to each other. Russia responded by blacklisting Western politicians. For example, both the incumbent British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his possible successors, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, have been imposed a travel ban.
The German chancellor justifies his decision not to go to Moscow by stating that he has not received an invitation. His predecessor Angela Merkel is struggling with a knee injury. It will mainly be foreign ambassadors and diplomats who will pay one last tribute to Gorbachev. For example, the French Ambassador to Russia, Pierre Levy, will represent French President Emmanuel Macron.
Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, when the empire collapsed. With his new economic and political policies, he made Russian concepts known worldwide, such as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform). Under his rule, the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall fell. As a result, he is more popular in the West than in Russia itself, where he was mainly regarded as the man who helped the Soviet Union to collapse.
Review: Why Gorbachev was anything but popular in Russia
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