Putin boycotts Gorbachev’s funeral to expose his weakness to the West

Thousands of people have said goodbye this Saturday in the historic Hall of the Columns of the House of the Unions in Moscow of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at the age of 91. Putin has denied him a state funeral and has not come to give him a last goodbye.

With this boycott, the head of the Kremlin intended to show the West that Gorbachev is perceived in Russia as a weak person, hated more than loved by the Russian people. However, the room opened at 10:00 local time (9:00 a.m. Spanish peninsular time) and was to close two hours later, but the Russians were patiently queuing to enter to say their last goodbye to Gorbachev, whose coffin with two honor guards on each side it was exhibited in the Sala de las Columnas, reserved for illustrious personalities.

The funerals, which do not have a State character, have had “some elements” such as the honor guard, as justified by the Kremlin, which did not expect at all that the attendance of thousands of Russian citizens would force the hours of the burning chapel to be extended .

Most of those who wanted to say goodbye to Gorbachev have taken about two hours to enter the historic building to pay tribute and lay roses and carnations in front of the coffin.

A strong police force accompanied the citizens who approached the Casa de los Sindicados, with fences and security arches along the route.

[Muere Gorbachov, el hombre que quiso reestructurar la URSS y cambió el mundo]

Putin does not go because of “agenda”

The great absentee of the day was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that he excused himself due to an “agenda item”. From the Kremlin they remember that the president said goodbye to Gorbachev already at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, where he brought him a bouquet of flowers.

The only foreign leader who has come to Moscow to say goodbye to who is considered one of the most relevant politicians of the 20th century in the West has been the Hungarian Prime Minister, the ultra-nationalist Viktor Orban.

They also said goodbye to the father of the perestroika the ambassadors of the USA, the United Kingdom and Germany, among others.

Among the Russian personalities who wanted to pay tribute to Gorbachev were the Russian journalist Dmitri Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize 2021, and director of the independent newspaper Nóvaya Gazeta, closed in Russia and that the late politician helped found.

Also passing through the House of Trade Unions was the party leader, the head of the Roscosmos space agency, Yuri Borisov, or the defender of the rights of businessmen, Borís Titov.

The last Soviet leader he will be buried in the afternoon next to his wife, Raísa, Died in 1999, at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.