Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev but will not attend the late former Soviet leader's funeral, a decision reflecting the Kremlin's ambivalence about Mr Gorbachev's legacy.
Mr Putin praised Gorbachev as a man who left "an enormous impact on the course of world history"Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that prior to departing for a working trip to Russia's westernmost Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Mr Putin visited a Moscow hospital where Gorbachev's body is kept before Saturday's funeral to lay flowers at his coffin.
Russian state television showed Mr Putin walking to Gorbachev's open coffin and putting a bouquet of red roses next to it. He stood in silence for a few moments, bowed his head, touched the coffin, crossed himself and walked away., will be buried at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife Raisa after a farewell ceremony will be held at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, an iconic mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since Soviet times.
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