THE FUNERAL for the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday night, will take place on 3 September in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions in Moscow, his daughter Irina said Wednesday.
“The burial will take place on Saturday at the Novodevichi Cemetery and the funeral chapel will be set up in the Hall of Columns of the House of Trade Unions,” the former Soviet leader’s daughter said, according to the Interfax news agency.
“The funeral chapel will be open to the public between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Moscow time,” a spokesman for the Gorbachev Foundation told Efe.
The last Soviet leader will be buried next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that information on the possible attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin would be released later.
Putin on Wednesday described Gorbachev as “a politician and statesman who played an influential role in world history.”
The Russian president noted that Gorbachev led the country in a “period of radical changes, as well as large-scale challenges faced by foreign policy, economy and society.”
The 91-year-old architect of perestroika passed away on Tuesday night after a “long and serious” illness.
The Hall of Columns of the House of Trade Unions in Moscow has been the venue for the funerals of several prominent Russian figures, including the founder of the USSR, Vladimir Lenin.
