Moscow, September 3
Thousands of Russians lined up near the open casket of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, on Saturday with many saying they wanted to honour his memory as “a peacemaker” who dismantled totalitarianism and gave them freedom.
Putin stays away
- Gorbachev will be buried at the Novodevichy cemetery along his wife Raisa
- President Vladimir Putin stayed away from memorial event
- Gorbachev was not granted a full state funeral unlike his nemesis Boris Yeltsin
Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991, died on Tuesday aged 91. His body lay in the grand Hall of Columns in central Moscow in the tradition of previous Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin.
Flanked by an honour guard of two rifle-wielding members of the elite Kremlin Regiment with the hall’s 54 chandeliers emitting only a dim glow, the former president’s body lay in an open casket with his face and upper body visible. His daughter Irina and her two daughters sat nearby with close family friends.
Best known in the West for helping end the Cold War, reducing his country’s nuclear stockpile, and for unwittingly presiding over the demise of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s legacy still divides opinion inside and outside Russia.
But those who took the trouble to line up to say farewell on Saturday recalled the late politician, who died in Moscow after an unspecified illness, with affection and gratitude. — Reuters
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