Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, talks with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
(Picture: AP)Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday because of schedule constraints, the Kremlin said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had paid his respects on Thursday morning by visiting and laying a wreath at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, where the last Soviet leader died on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do this on September 3, so he decided to do it today," Mr Peskov said.
Putin visited Gorbachev’s open-topped coffin in a private goodbye to a man he had previously criticised as surrendering the Soviet Union.
The Russian president was seen in footage placing flowers at the coffin, and gazing at a picture of Gorbachev beside it.
He then bowed before the former Kremlin leader and crossed himself and touched the coffin.
The Kremlin has refused a full scale state funeral for the man who changed the world by ending the Cold War and ensuring nuclear disarmament.
However, Mr Peskov said the funeral will have “elements” of a state funeral. “The state will be assisting in the organisation,” the Kremlin said.
Putin described Gorbachev, who died aged 91, on Wednesday as someone who had a “huge” impact on world history.
"He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges,” he said.
“He deeply understood that reforms were necessary, he strove to offer his own solutions to urgent problems.”
Gorbachev is known for bringing the Cold War to an end and with it bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union - something Putin is said to have long regretted.
Among those paying tribute to the former world leader upon his death was Boris Johnson, who said: “Mikhail Gorbachev is one of those people who changed the world and unquestionably changed it for the better.
“When you look at what he did to make Europe whole, free, to give freedom to the countries of the former Soviet Union - it was quite an extraordinary thing.”
US President, Joe Biden, also praised his achievements, saying he believed “in a better world”.
