While Mikhail Gorbachev was remembered on Wednesday as a great leader who contributed to the end of the Cold War, Russia, which is currently at war with Ukraine to reclaim some of the authority it lost when the Soviet Union fell, reacted coolly to his passing.
The last Soviet leader, Gorbachev, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91 at a hospital in Moscow following a two-year battle with a severe illness.
He established alliances with Western nations and signed armaments agreements with the United States between the heady years of 1985 and 1991 in order to bring about the reunification of Germany and lift the Iron Curtain that had separated Europe since World War Two.
However, his internal changes, which combined economic and political liberalisation, contributed to the USSR’s weakness until its disintegration, which President Vladimir Putin famously referred to as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.
President of the United States Joe Biden praised Gorbachev as “a guy of tremendous vision” and emphasised the freedoms he established, which Putin has been slowly eroding.
“As leader of the USSR, he worked with President (Ronald) Reagan to reduce our two countries’ nuclear arsenals … After decades of brutal political repression, he embraced democratic reforms.” added Biden.
“The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”
West mourns Gorbachev the peacemaker
Putin took more than 15 hours to publish the text of his restrained condolence letter, in which he noted that Gorbachev had “deeply understood that reforms were necessary” to address the issues facing the Soviet Union in the 1980s and had “huge impact on the course of world history.”
Gorbachev, however, looked to get the same honour as past Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin: a burial in the House of Unions’ Hall of Columns, in plain view of the Kremlin.
The ceremony will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife Raisa in Moscow’s central Novodevichy Cemetery at 0700 GMT, according to a representative for his foundation, which was quoted by Russian news media.
Putin’s participation was uncertain.
