Putin had a tense relationship with Gorbachev, who oversaw the end of the Soviet Union.
President Putin is not attending the funeral of his Kremlin predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev, on Saturday in what many are interpreting as a deliberate snub.
A public farewell ceremony was held for Gorbachev at Moscow’s House of Unions, to be followed by the funeral itself at Novodevichy cemetery.
Putin did not grant Gorbachev a state funeral, making him the first Kremlin leader since Nikita Khrushchev to be denied the honor.
According to his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin is unable to attend in person because of work commitments.
Peskov said: « Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him. »
Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday aged 91, was the final leader of the Soviet Union and oversaw policies the lead to its disintegration.
Putin, a former KGB agent, has described the USSR’s collapse as the « greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century ».
On Thursday Putin did place a red rose by Gorbachev’s coffin at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital. In a message of condolence to Gorbachev’s family he described the former Soviet leader as « a politician and statesman who had a huge impact on the course of world history ».
