Follow our live blog on the death of Mikhail Gorbachev
The funeral of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died this Tuesday at the age of 91, will take place on Saturday, September 3 in Moscow, news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing his daughter and founder of the politician. .
“The funeral will take place on Saturday at the Novodevichy Cemetery [na capital russa] and the wake will be held in the Hall of Columns of the House of Trade Unions”, a place reserved for prominent personalities of Russian society, said the daughter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Irina Virganskaya, quoted by the Russian agency Interfax.
The politician’s body will be in a combustion chamber for a few hours, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. local time (7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Lisbon time), and the public will have access to the place, according to a spokesman. of the Gorbachev Foundation, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
“The decision was made by the family,” said the same spokesman.
Mikhail Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
The spokesman of the Kremlin (Russian presidency), Dmitry Peskov, said this day that the information about the possible presence of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the funeral ceremonies will be announced in the coming days.
In a published message of condolence, Putin spoke of “a politician and statesman who had a great influence on world history.
“He guided our country through a period of complex and dramatic changes and great challenges in foreign, economic and social policy,” said the Russian head of state, quoted by international agencies.
Gorbachev, who led the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1985 until its collapse in 1991, died Tuesday night in Moscow of a “long and serious illness”, according to the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital, where he was being treated. treaty.
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Several Western leaders have paid tribute to the politician who fought to reduce tensions at the height of the Cold War and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
Despite being hailed by most of the international community, Gorbachev remains to date a controversial figure in Russiawhere many still blame him for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Funeral ceremonies for leading figures in Russian history, including Vladimir Illich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin, were held in the Column Hall of the Moscow House of Trade Unions.
The last politician whose wake was held in this room was the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (extreme right), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died last April.
Source: Observadora
