Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral.
A Kremlin statement said that his busy “schedule” prevented him from attending the funeral which will be held in the famous Hall of Columns inside Moscow’s House of Unions, agencies reported, the same place where Josef Stalin’s body was put on display following his death in 1953.
Mr Gorbachev was known for ending the Cold War without bloodshed, but failed to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Prime Minister Robert Abela, in a tweet, praised Gorbachev and George Bush for bringing the Cold War to an end.
