Putin will not attend Gorbachev's funeral

Kremlin spokesman confirms that there will be "state funeral elements" during the ceremony to see off the former Soviet leader

MADRID, 1 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the funeral of the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, scheduled for this Saturday due to incompatibility in his agenda.

"Before leaving (for Kaliningrad), the president (Putin) stopped at the Central Clinical Hospital, where he said goodbye to Mikhail Gorbachev and laid flowers," Peskov explained, according to the TASS news agency.

Putin has given his last goodbye to Gorbachev dressed in a black tie and has remained standing, near the coffin, where he has left a bouquet of roses. He then he has looked at the portrait of the former Soviet leader, at his feet, and has crossed himself.

The Kremlin spokesman has cleared doubts about the magnitude of the tributes to Gorbachev, assuring that the ceremony will have "elements of a state funeral." "There will be a guard of honor," he added, as reported by the Interfax news agency.

Gorbachev, who will have a ceremony organized by the protocol service of the Russian Presidency in the Hall of Columns of the House of Trade Unions, will be buried in the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, next to his late wife, as he wished.

Gorbachev died Tuesday in a Moscow hospital at the age of 91 after a long illness. Architect of the first steps in today's Russia, his figure is associated with Perestroika, a set of political reforms within the Communist Party of the USSR, which won him more admirers outside than inside.