Putin to miss Gorbachev's funeral due to his 'work schedule'

Vladimir Putin.
(Image credit: MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at the age of 91, Reuters reports.

On Thursday, state television showed Putin visiting Gorbachev's coffin in Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, where he "made a sign of the cross in Russian Orthodox fashion before briefly touching the edge of the coffin," Reuters writes.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.