DPAMoscowMikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, was buried in Moscow on Saturday, after he died this week at the age of 91.His coffin was lowered into the grave next to that of his wife Raissa in Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery accompanied by the Russian national anthem and a gun salute. Unlike for former Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007), Gorbachev was not given a state funeral. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the ceremony on account of prior engagements, the Kremlin said.Gorbachev was often credited for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end. However, while politicians in the West have praised his services to peace and the reunification of Germany, reactions in Russia were mixed, with many holding the former head of state responsible for the disintegration of the Soviet Union.Nonetheless, thousands of mourners had gathered earlier on Saturday at the House of Trade Unions within sight of the Kremlin in the Russian capital as the coffin containing Gorbachev was displayed.In the dimmed lighting, with Mozart’s “Requiem” playing in the background, mourners waited for a chance to pay their last respects to the Nobel Peace Prize winner.Sifa, a pensioner from Moscow, told dpa after waiting over two hours to approach the coffin, “I still had to cry when I passed him.” “An era has ended along with Gorbachev and we do not know what the future holds,” she said. She added that Gorbachev opened Russia up for the world, and opened the world up to Russians.“He was also the first leader that I really saw as a man,” she said in reference to Gorbachev’s open affection for his wife and family.Olga, also a Moscow resident, around 60 years old, said that Gorbachev could have charged a higher price for letting Germany unify peacefully, but that he was a romantic at heart. “He enabled German unification because he understood what it means for a family to be separated.” “At least he was never interested in just promoting his own image like today’s politicians, instead he was a real person,” she added.While most of those queueing were old enough to remember his presidency, some young people also came out to mourn. Anton Orech, a former columnist for the liberal radio broadcaster Echo of Moscow, said that his daughter and one of her fellow students were also there. The mourners, he suggested, were not just united by grief, but by the current political situation.“In the current circumstances this is the only legal way to express one’s opinion,” he said. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev was among the Russian politicains to pay his respects, Russian news agencies reported.Opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky and journalist Dmitry Muratov, who has also been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, were there as well.Foreign leaders were few and far between, with most nations represented by their ambassadors. Despite high regard for Gorbachev in London, Paris and Berlin, the leaders of Western powers did not travel to the ceremony, as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has soured relations with Moscow.One of few foreign leaders to make the trip was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose attendance was reported by Russian news agency Interfax.Although the West has imposed sanctions on Russia due to Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Orbán still has a good relationship with Putin. It is not clear whether Orbán would meet Putin in Moscow.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his respects in a phone call with Putin, according to the Kremlin.Germany, which holds Gorbachev in particularly high esteem for enabling the country’s reunification, sent the chargé d’affaires of the German embassy to the funeral.In Germany, flags in front of the chancellor’s office in Berlin were flying at half-mast to mark the funeral. Gorbachev is an honorary citizen of the city of Berlin.Revered in the West for launching “perestroika,” the broad restructuring of the communist system that led to the reunification of Germany and Eastern Europe’s break from Moscow’s yoke, Gorbachev is blamed by many Russians for destroying their Soviet Union and giving free rein to crime, soaring prices and social insecurity.Some of his achievements are undisputed. His “glasnost” - or openness - another term that entered the languages of the world, allowed hundreds of banned writers and dissidents to work without fear of persecution or loss of citizenship.Other reforms were destined to fail, such as the democratization of the Communist Party, economic transformation and an anti-alcohol campaign deeply resented by his hard-drinking countrymen and women.
