MOSCOW (National Times) \u2014 Thousands of mourners lined up Saturday to pay tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War and precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union, in a farewell snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Putin privately laid flowers at Gorbachev\u2019s coffin at a Moscow hospital where he died. The Kremlin said the president\u2019s busy schedule would prevent him from attending the funeral.
\nAsked what specific business will keep Putin busy on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the president will have a series of working meetings, an international phone call and needs to prepare for a business forum in Russia\u2019s Far East he\u2019s scheduled to attend next week.<\/p>\n
Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at the age of 91, will be buried at Moscow\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
At the ceremony Saturday, mourners passed by Gorbachev\u2019s open casket flanked by honorary guards, laying flowers as solemn music played. Gorbachev\u2019s daughter, Irina, and his two granddaughters sat beside the coffin.
\nThe grand, chandeliered hall lined by columns hosted balls for the nobility under the czars and served as a venue for high-level meetings and congresses along with state funerals during Soviet times. Upon entering the building, mourners saw honor guards flanking a large photo of Gorbachev standing with a broad smile, a reminder of the cheerful vigor he brought to the Soviet leadership after a series of dour, ailing predecessors.
\nThe turnout was large enough that the viewing was extended more than an hour beyond the stated two hours.<\/p>\n
Despite the choice of the prestigious site for the farewell ceremony, the Kremlin stopped short of calling it a state funeral, with Peskov saying the ceremony will have \u201celements\u201d of one, such as honorary guards, and the government\u2019s assistance in organizing it. He wouldn\u2019t describe how it will differ from a full-fledged state funeral.<\/p>\n
Declaring a state funeral for Gorbachev would have obliged Putin to attend it and would have required Moscow to invite foreign leaders, something that it was apparently reluctant to do amid soaring tensions with the West after sending troops to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia\u2019s Security Council chaired by Putin who served as Russia\u2019s president in 2008-2012, showed up at the farewell ceremony. He then released a post on a messaging app channel, referring to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to engineer Russia\u2019s breakup, a policy he described as a \u201cchess game with Death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who often has been critical of the Western sanctions against Russia, attended the farewell on Saturday. The U.S., British and German ambassadors also attended.<\/p>\n
The modest ceremony contrasted with a lavish 2007 state funeral given to Boris Yeltsin, Russia\u2019s first post-Soviet leader who anointed Putin as his preferred successor and set the stage for him to win the presidency by stepping down.<\/p>\n
The farewell viewing was shadowed by the awareness that the openness Gorbachev championed has been stifled under Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank him for my childhood of freedom, which we don\u2019t have today,\u201d said mourner Ilya, a financial services worker in his early 30s who declined to give his last name.
\n\u201cI am a son of perestroika,\u201d he said, using the Russian word for Gorbachev\u2019s reform, or reconstruction, initiatives.<\/p>\n
Putin, who once lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the \u201cgreatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,\u201d 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\u2019s expansion eastward. The issue has marred Russia-West relations for decades and fomented tensions that exploded when the Russian leader sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n
In a carefully phrased letter of condolence released Wednesday avoiding explicit praise or criticism, Putin described Gorbachev as a man who left \u201can enormous impact on the course of world history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe led the country during difficult and dramatic changes, amid large-scale foreign policy, economic and society challenges,\u201d Putin said. \u201cHe deeply realized that reforms were necessary and tried to offer his solutions for the acute problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kremlin\u2019s ambivalence about Gorbachev was reflected in state television broadcasts, which described his worldwide acclaim and grand expectations generated by his reforms, but held him responsible for plunging the country into political turmoil and economic woes and failing to properly defend the country\u2019s interests in talks with the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW (National Times) \u2014 Thousands of mourners lined up Saturday to pay tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who launched drastic reforms that helped end the Cold War and precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union, in a farewell snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin\u2019s refusal to declare a state funeral reflects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n