After the funeral service attended by thousands of people, former Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev was buried in Moscow on Saturday. To the sound of the Russian national anthem and a gun salute, the coffin was lowered into the grave. The ceremony took place at the cemetery of celebrities in the Novodevichy Monastery. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was buried next to his wife Raissa. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the only EU politician present in Moscow, while Russian President Vladimir Putin was absent.
The former head of state and party leader died on Tuesday at the age of 91 in Moscow after a long and serious illness.
In the morning many Muscovites said goodbye to the open coffin. President Vladimir Putin was not there. Due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, there was also a lack of prominent politicians from the West. The only EU head of government present was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Photos of the funeral showed journalist Dmitry Muratov with a portrait of Gorbachev in front of wreaths in honor of the deceased. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, who is critical of the Kremlin. Gorbachev co-owned the newspaper, which repeatedly exposed abuses in Russia.
Paving the way for the end of the Cold War
Gorbachev was the last head of state of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. He was seen as a pioneer before the end of the Cold War and enjoyed an enormous reputation, especially in Germany. Under his leadership, the Soviet Union signed groundbreaking treaties on nuclear disarmament and arms control with the United States in the 1980s.
In his homeland, the politician as General Secretary of the Communist Party initiated an unprecedented reform process with his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).
The political process eventually led to the collapse of the communist empire. Many politicians and citizens of Russia see Gorbachev as the “gravedigger of the Soviet Union”. Until the afternoon, no heads of state or government from the former Soviet republics appeared at the funeral. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute to Gorbachev’s “important role” in Russia and the world in a telephone conversation with Putin.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
