The Kremlin has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral because of his “work schedule.”
Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and one of the most significant figures of the 20th century, will be laid to rest on Saturday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony will have “elements” of a state funeral, including a guard of honour, and the government was helping with the organization.
Mr Peskov said Mr Putin had paid his respects on Thursday morning by visiting and laying a wreath at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, where Mr Gorbachev died on Tuesday.
However, he confirmed the president will not be attending the funeral.
Mr Peskov said: “Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do this on 3 September, so he decided to do it today.”
Mr Putin paid tribute to Mr Gorbachev on Wednesday as a leader who had a “huge impact on the course of world history” and found his “own solutions to urgent problems”.
The Russian president said in a statement: ” “He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges.
“He deeply understood that reforms were necessary, he strove to offer his own solutions to urgent problems.”
Mr Putin also noted the “great humanitarian, charitable, education activities” carried out by Mr Gorbachev in the years before his death aged 91.
When Mr Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, he set out to revitalize the communist system and shape a new union based on a more equal partnership between the 15 USSR republics.
However, he attempted political and economic reforms simultaneously and on too ambitious a scale, unleashing forces he could not control.
As pro-democracy protests swept across communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force – unlike predecessors who had deployed tanks to crush uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The demonstrations fuelled aspirations for autonomy in the republics, and the last Soviet leader failed to anticipate the strength of nationalist feelings.