THOUSANDS SALUTE GORBACHEV IN MOSCOW
Former leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War and precipitated the break-up of the Soviet Union, was buried yesterday after thousands of mourners gathered for his funeral in Moscow although Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed away.
The Kremlin’s refusal to declare a state funeral reflects its uneasiness about the legacy of Gorbachev, who has been venerated worldwide for bringing down the Iron Curtain but reviled by many at home for the Soviet collapse and the ensuing economic meltdown that plunged millions into poverty.
On Thursday, Putin privately laid flowers at Gorbachev’s open coffin at the Moscow hospital where he died. The Kremlin said the president’s busy schedule would prevent him from attending the funeral.
Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, was buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife Raisa, following a farewell ceremony at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, an opulent 18th Century mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since Soviet times. At the farewell event, mourners passed by Gorbachev’s open casket flanked by honorary guards, laying flowers as solemn music played.
His daughter Irina and his two granddaughters sat beside the coffin.
The turnout was large enough that the viewing was extended well beyond the stated two hours.
Declaring a state funeral would have obliged Putin to attend and would have required Moscow to invite foreign leaders, something it was apparently reluctant to do amid soaring tensions with the West after sending troops to Ukraine.
The farewell was shadowed by the awareness that the openness Gorbachev championed has been stifled under Putin. “I want to thank him for my childhood of freedom, which we don’t have today,” said mourner Ilya, a financial services worker in his early 30s who declined to give his last name.
Putin, who once lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”, has avoided explicit personal criticism of Gorbachev but has repeatedly blamed him for failing to secure written commitments from the West that would rule out Nato’s expansion east.
The issue has marred Russia-West relations for decades and fomented tensions that exploded when the Russian leader sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.