MOSCOW: Russians on Saturday (Sep 3) paid their final respects to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, in a ceremony held in Moscow without much fanfare and with President Vladimir Putin notably absent. Hundreds of mourners lined up to quietly file past Gorbachev's open casket as it was
State television on Thursday showed images of Putin, alone, laying a bouquet of red roses near Gorbachev's open casket at the hospital where he died.There were few other signs of an official presence at the ceremony, where Gorbachev's daughter Irina Virganskaya sat to the side of the coffin with other family members.Gorbachev was to be buried later Saturday at Moscow's prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died from cancer in 1999.
Before the Ukraine conflict, Orban had one of the closest relationships with Putin of any EU leader, but the Kremlin said there were no talks planned during his visit to Moscow. After Gorbachev's death, tributes poured in from Western capitals, where he is remembered for allowing countries in Eastern Europe to free themselves from Soviet rule and for signing a landmark nuclear arms reduction pact with the United States.Flags were also flying at half-mast in Berlin on Saturday, in memory of the man who held back Soviet troops as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
Putin, who called the Soviet collapse the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, has spent much of his more than 20-year rule reversing parts of Gorbachev's legacy.
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