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Reuters
Reuters
Politics
By Felix Light

Putin denies Gorbachev a state funeral and will stay away

FILE PHOTO: A man places a rose on a sculpture of Mikhail Gorbachev in memory of the final leader of the Soviet Union, at the "Fathers of Unity" memorial in Berlin, Germany August 31, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to miss the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, denying the man who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet empire the full state honours granted to Boris Yeltsin.

Gorbachev, idolised in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but unloved at home for the chaos that his "perestroika" reforms unleashed, will be buried on Saturday after a public ceremony in Moscow's Hall of Columns.

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