Thousands of Russians showed up to pay their last respects to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at 91. Gorbachev’s Perestroika, meaning restructuring, and Glasnost, meaning transparency are largely believed to be responsible for the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s subsequent fall.
The Kremlin’s refusal to give Gorbachev a state funeral shows the government’s uneasiness with the man who’s venerated the world over for possibly ending the Cold War, but not so well-liked in Russia – especially among those whose loyalties lay with the Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent when the Berlin Wall fell, paid his respects to Gorbachev in private but has snubbed the deceased leader’s funeral. Gorbachev is to be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery, next to his wife, Raisa.
His farewell was at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions and attended by daughter Irina, and Gorbachev’s two granddaughters.