{"id":25291,"date":"2022-09-03T15:44:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T15:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=25291"},"modified":"2022-09-03T15:44:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T15:44:44","slug":"mikhail-gorbachev-funeral-held-in-moscow-as-putin-too-busy-to-attend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/09\/03\/mikhail-gorbachev-funeral-held-in-moscow-as-putin-too-busy-to-attend\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikhail Gorbachev funeral held in Moscow as Putin too busy to attend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russians 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.<\/p>\n

Several thousand mourners queued up to quietly file past Gorbachev\u2019s open casket as it was flanked by honour guards under the Russian flag in the historic Hall of Columns.<\/p>\n

The farewell ceremony in Moscow\u2019s House of the Unions was followed by a closed funeral in the Novodevichy cemetery.<\/p>\n

\nA Kremlin spokesperson had said the funeral would not be attended by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, due to his \u201cwork schedule\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n
\"People<\/a><\/div>
People standing in line to attend the farewell ceremony.<\/span>Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nonetheless, the security presence was heavy in central Moscow, where armed police and armoured vehicles were stationed downtown.<\/p>\n

Bearing bouquets of carnations and roses, mourners spoke of \u201cpaying tribute\u201d to Gorbachev\u2019s legacy and the \u201cgift of freedom\u201d he gave the country, despite the anger many Russians felt toward him for hastening the end of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Gorbachev ‘was so amazing’ says former adviser to Ronald Reagan at Moscow funeral<\/span><\/div>\n

He remains a hero for many liberal Russians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to pay tribute to a great man,\u201d said Galina Ivanchenko, who was carrying a bouquet of carnations. \u201cHe took on a burden that none of us could have and he should be remembered for that, despite what everyone says.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she hoped with time more Russians would remember him more fondly in the future.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Guards<\/a><\/div>
Guards stand by the coffin of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.<\/span> Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWho hasn\u2019t made mistakes?\u201d she asked. \u201cHe should be forgiven. He should never have been blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several hours the coffin was taken out of the hall in a procession led by Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel Peace prize-winning editor-in-chief of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Gorbachev helped found.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev: the last leader of the Soviet Union obituary<\/span><\/div>\n

The coffin was taken to Moscow\u2019s prestigious Novodevichy cemetery, where it was lowered into the grave to the sounds of a military band playing the Russian national anthem and a gun salute.<\/p>\n

Gorbachev was buried next to his wife, Raisa, who died from cancer in 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russians 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. Several thousand mourners queued up to quietly file past Gorbachev\u2019s open casket as it was flanked by honour guards under the Russian flag in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[9782,1221,12320,7897,5241,5207,12612,4028,7896,3577,6980,9807,1152,7819,5572,5340,5208,5396,421,3805,71,5217,3852,5655,7820,7231,6348,694,10415,594],"class_list":["post-25291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-bouquet","tag-cancer","tag-cemetery","tag-coffin","tag-died","tag-dmitry-muratov","tag-farewell","tag-freedom","tag-funeral","tag-future","tag-gift","tag-gun","tag-kremlin","tag-mikhail-gorbachev","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-novaya-gazeta","tag-peace","tag-police","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-russian","tag-russians","tag-security","tag-soviet-union","tag-union","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}