Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader beloved by the West who lived long enough to see all the reforms he promoted undone, will be buried on Saturday without state honors or the presence of Russia’s current president, Reuters reported.

Gorbachev became a hero in the West for helping Eastern Europe shake off more than four decades of Soviet communist control, allowing the reunification of East and West Germany, and negotiating arms control and limitation treaties with the United States.

When pro-democracy protests swept the Soviet-bloc countries of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using force – unlike previous Kremlin leaders who sent tanks to quell uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

But the protests fueled a desire for autonomy in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated in chaos over the next two years.

Many Russians could not forgive him for this and the economic chaos unleashed by his liberalizing “perestroika” program.

Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, and Muscovites will be able to see the coffin with the dead body in the majestic Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, where other former Soviet leaders were also mourned.

But it’s no surprise that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a KGB intelligence officer who called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “geopolitical catastrophe,” refused to honor Gorbachev and said he was too busy to attend the funeral.

Buried without state honors

Many Western heads of state and government who were certain to attend will also be absent, kept at a distance by the gulf in East-West relations caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Instead, ordinary Russians will walk past the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s open casket from 10 a.m. (0700 GMT).

It comes after former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who played a key role in ousting Gorbachev during the collapse of the Soviet Union and later chose Putin as his successor, had a national day of mourning and a state funeral in Moscow’s main cathedral in 2007.

However, after the ceremony, Gorbachev will be buried under Yeltsin’s name at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow next to his beloved wife Raisa.

Gorbachev, “crushed” by the events in Ukraine

When he became president, Putin wasted no time in destroying the political pluralism created by Gorbachev’s policies and slowly began to restore Moscow’s influence over many of the lost republics.

The invasion of Ukraine in February was perhaps the final nail in the coffin of Gorbachev’s legacy, which his aide said left him “shocked and stunned” in the final months of his life.

“It’s not only about the (military special operation) that began on February 24, but the entire evolution of relations between Russia and Ukraine over the past few years, which was a really, really strong blow for him. It really crushed him emotionally and psychologically,” she said. Palazhchenko in an interview with Reuters.

“It was very obvious to us that he was shocked and disoriented by what was happening (after the introduction of Russian troops into Ukraine in February) for various reasons. He not only believed in the rapprochement of the Russian and Ukrainian people, but also believed that these two peoples are intertwined,” Palazhchenko added.

READ ALSO:

• Mikhail Gorbachev died at the age of 91
• The first reaction of Vladimir Putin after the death of Mikhail Gorbachev
• Who was Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who publicly called on Putin to leave power / His career in three questions and answers
• Appreciated abroad, controversial in Russia: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last living leader of the Cold War era
• VIDEO “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – memorable quotes from great heads of state about the last Soviet leader
• Mikhail Gorbachev and the dark legacy of the Chernobyl disaster still evoke painful memories in Ukraine: “I do not regret that he died at all”
• VIDEO How Vladimir Putin’s “iron puppet” comments on Gorbachev’s death: “Probably, it would be indecent to talk about it on the day of his death (but)”
• Ion Iliescu after Gorbachev’s death: “A man of dialogue. It saved us from many problems”
• Mikhail Gorbachev’s last interview: “The Americans went to their heads”