The farewell ceremony for Mikhail Gorbachev takes place in Moscow on Saturday, 3 September. Relatives, friends and local residents are gathering at the House of the Unions to say goodbye to the last Soviet Union leader.
Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and de facto leader of the Soviet Union, in 1985. Gorbachev was 54 at the time and seen as a breath of fresh air after several ageing leaders. He introduced a set of reforms known as "Perestroika" (reconstruction) and "Glasnost" (openness). But he was unable to prevent the slow collapse of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet Union leader, on 3 September, because of schedule constraints.