Putin denies state honours funeral to Gorbachev

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the full state honours funeral to Mikhail Gorbachev the man who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet empire, however, Putin granted the full state honours to Boris Yeltsin.

Gorbachev, admired in the West for allowing Eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but not loved at home for the chaos that his “perestroika” reforms unleashed. He will be buried on Saturday after a public ceremony in Moscow’s Hall of Columns.

The grand hall, within sight of the Kremlin, hosted the funerals of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev.

Gorbachev will be given a military guard of honour — but his funeral will not be a state one.

Gorbachev died on Tuesday aged 91.

Gorbachev — a man who changed the world through political transformation.

The German capital on Thursday ordered official flags to be lowered to half-mast during Mikhail Gorbachev’s weekend funeral as calls grew for a fitting tribute to the last Soviet leader.

“We want to appropriately honour the accomplishments of our honorary citizen Mikhail Gorbachev in bringing about the political transformation of (communist) East Germany,” Berlin’s interior minister Iris Spranger said in a statement.