Kremlin fails to say whether Gorbachev will get state funeral
Putin acknowledges last Soviet leader’s ‘huge impact’ while grappling with his legacy of reform
Andrew Roth in Moscow
Wed 31 Aug 2022 15.31 BST
It is unclear whether Putin will attend Gorbachev’s funeral at the Novodevichy cemetery or his farewell ceremony on Saturday at Moscow’s House of Unions, a short walk away from the Kremlin.
“He led our country over the period of complex, dramatic transformations and extensive foreign political, economic, and social challenges. He had a profound understanding of the need for reforms and sought to propose his solutions to the pressing problems.”
Putin had a strained relationship with Gorbachev, who initiated policies that ultimately led to the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin has called the collapse of the USSR the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst and head of the analytical firm R.Politik, called the language of the message “tortured”.
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