A halftone tribute is what is looming today in Moscow where the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last Tuesday August 30, is being celebrated. Vladimir Putin himself set the tone for this Russian feverishness in paying homage to the initiator of perestroika. He announced that he would not participate, this Saturday, in the funeral of the last president of the Soviet Union. But the Kremlin should still bring its touch to the tribute.
With our correspondent in Moscow, Paul Gogo
Vladimir Putin assumed it during his last statements, there will be no national tribute today to Mikhail Gorbachev, it is his foundation, the Gorbachev Foundation, founded in 1991, which will organize this day of funeral in the center of Moscow.
This foundation is made up of relatives who have been busy in recent years protecting the politician’s legacy, because Russian society is increasingly driven to regret the end of the USSR.
The Kremlin assures him, he will all the same put at the service of the foundation his protocol service to offer, according to certain media, a hedge of honor of soldiers to the former Soviet president. At midday, all Russians will have the opportunity to pay their last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, whose body will be exhibited in the House of Trade Unions, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, it’s a tradition in Russia.
Then, Mikhail Gorbachev will be buried in the afternoon at the cemetery of the great personalities of the country, the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, he will be buried alongside his wife Raissa, and not far from his successor in the Kremlin, Boris Yeltsin.
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♦ Testimonial
Pavel Palazhchenko is now in charge of press relations for the Gorbachev fund. He was Gorbachev’s chief interpreter when he ruled the USSR from 1985 to 1991 and attended all important diplomatic meetings. He looks back on those years.
” I think a lot of times a lot of things didn’t go well. The worst moments were the spy scandals, and when American warships entered Soviet territorial waters, which at that time seemed to scuttle the whole process of normalizing relations with the United States and disarmament nuclear. I remember a lot of difficult times like that, and also a lot of good times. What stands out to me is that Gorbachev and Reagan, despite those bumps and holes in the road, stayed on track. It is very important to stay the course despite the various problems, challenges and difficulties. I understood that things were finally starting to go in the right direction when the first arms control and reduction treaty was signed in Washington in December 1987. For me, this is the decisive moment, when I understood that relations with the United States and generally with the West were on the right track. »
A legacy to preserve
” We will continue to work and we believe that our main task is precisely to work so that his legacy is preserved. We have archives, his papers, including those now in his residence. It has a large library. We will hold conferences to discuss his legacy. We therefore plan to continue to work very hard to ensure that the legacy will be preserved for future generations.
I don’t think everything he worked for has been destroyed or is being destroyed. But, of course, a lot of events in the world and in Russia over the past few years have really made him angry. But, when I last spoke to him on the phone a few weeks ago, I sensed that he remained bullish for the long haul. He had the same faith in the future of Russia that he always had. One of his books is called “I’m optimistic”. And, of course, it’s hard to be optimistic right now when looking at the short and possibly medium-term outlook. But in the long run, I think he kept faith and optimism about the long term future. »