Putin to Snub Gorbachev Funeral, Will Not Hold State Services

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold a state funeral for Mikhail Gorbachev, and will not personally attend services for him, the Kremlin said. Gorbachev, the first and last leader of the Soviet Union, died earlier this week at age 91.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on September 1 that while Gorbachev will not be honored with a full state funeral, the service will have an honor guard and some other elements usually given during such a ceremony.

Putin bid farewell to the first president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital on Thursday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. But Putin paid his respects privately, Peskov said.

“Before leaving [for Kaliningrad], the president stopped by the Central Clinical Hospital, where he bid farewell to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and laid flowers at his coffin,” Peskov said.

He noted that the head of state’s work schedule “unfortunately did not allow” him to take part in the general farewell ceremony scheduled for September 3. “That is why he decided to surely to do so today,” the spokesman said.

Over the years, Gorbachev had been a dissenting voice among a chorus of Putin supporters among the Russian political elite. When Putin had stepped into the prime minister’s post to avoid violating presidential term limits and was becoming eligible to run for the top office again in 2012, Gorbachev implored him not to do it.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich has already served two terms, and one more as prime minister. I would not run for president if I were in his place,” Gorbachev said in comments published on his 80th birthday. He pointed to Hosni Mubarak, saying that the ousted Egyptian leader had “stayed too long, people were fed up with him.”

“People…do not want to be a mass, a flock led for decades by the same shepherds,” Gorbachev said. He said that Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, the “tandemocracy” partner who was president from 2008 to 2012, both “must understand: their time is limited.”

Gorbachev died Aug. 30 after a prolonged illness.

With reporting from RFE/RL.