The body of the Nobel Peace Prize winner was laid out there. Many waited in front of the building with flowers in their hands. Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91 after a long, serious illness.
In the early afternoon, the former head of state and party leader is to be buried next to his wife Raissa in Moscow’s celebrity cemetery at the Novodevichy Convent near the city center. There is no state funeral – unlike after the death of President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007). Austria is represented by the chargé d’affaires of the embassy in Moscow.
Only Viktor Orban, who has been criticized for his special approach to Russia, announced his coming from the EU. According to his spokesman, Hungary’s right-wing prime minister traveled to Moscow on Saturday. Orban, known as a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was accompanied by a four-person delegation. A meeting between the two statesmen is not planned, the Kremlin said. Orban has been accused by his critics of being too close to Moscow. Among other things, Hungary has been the only EU country to increase gas supplies from Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war. Otherwise, no Western leaders attended the funeral. The background are the sanctions because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner died on Tuesday at the age of 91 after a long illness. Unlike after the death of Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007), there is no state funeral. The funeral service began at 9:00 a.m. CEST. Gorbachev’s body was first laid out for several hours in the House of Trade Unions within sight of the Kremlin. Traditionally, the coffins of Soviet leaders were placed there after their death. The mourners could then say goodbye to Gorbachev. He is then to be buried in Moscow’s celebrity cemetery at the Novodevichy Convent – next to his wife Raisa.
Putin not there
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend. His spokesman Dmitri Peskow justified this with scheduling problems. Putin paid his last respects to Gorbachev at his coffin on Thursday. As a co-owner of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, which is critical of the Kremlin, Gorbachev criticized, among other things, restrictions on press freedom and other authoritarian power moves under Putin. However, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev showed up at the funeral services.
Gorbachev was considered a pioneer for the end of the Cold War and one of the fathers of German unity. Under his leadership, the Soviet Union signed groundbreaking nuclear disarmament and arms control treaties with the United States in the 1980s. In his homeland, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, he introduced an unprecedented reform process with his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).
The political process ultimately led to the collapse of the communist empire. Many politicians and citizens of Russia therefore see Gorbachev as the “gravedigger of the Soviet Union”, who plunged Russia into chaos at the time. Especially in East Germany, “Gorbi” enjoyed a great reputation because of the opening up of the communist system and the fall of the Wall allowed by Moscow at the time. His death sparked international grief.
Austria is represented at the funeral ceremonies for Gorbachev by the charge d’affaires of the Austrian embassy in Moscow. This is also handled in this way by many other EU member states, according to the Foreign Ministry at the request of the APA.
It would not have been possible for many foreign politicians to attend the funeral anyway, because the Russian side imposed entry bans on them in response to Western sanctions. The airspace in Russia is also closed to aircraft from “unfriendly EU countries”. For this reason, foreign ambassadors and diplomats in particular will say goodbye to Gorbachev.
Source: Nachrichten
